Life Lines
by podge17
Summary: COMPLETE!House gets a new case, and intends to ignore her just like all his other patients. But House finds he's connected to her in a way for more significant than doctorpatient. How does he know her mother? And who's added House to their hitlist?Review!
1. Health Concerns

Title- Life Lines  
Rating- T (for mild language)  
Description- 15 year-old Marina Zora goes to lunch with her best friend (Cafeteria food was so gross!) when she starts getting chills, and a headache. Next she gets a fever. She is then taken to none-other than Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, where she meets fresh love, new family, new friends, and new grief. House meets someone from his past he'd rather not, and someone surprisingly new, as well as a new girlfriend.  
Disclaimer - I have shocking news…I do not own House (damn!) But I do own all original characters and plot line.  
First Word Count - 2776  
Fanks!

First fanfic people!  
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"Are you sure we should be doing this?" questioned Bella, Marina's best friend.

Marina laughed. "Come _on_." sighed Marina exasperatedly. "We get all the way to the restaurant and now you want to go back. I always knew you had a thing for one of the lunch ladies! Wait! Don't tell me! It's Gertrude isn't it!"

"Uh. Yeah, right. I think I've heard enough of your crazy antics for today."

"That's all you know! Next minute you'll be on your knees begging for my crazy antics!" she waggled her eyebrows. "Am I right?"

Bella patted her back. "Shh. Don't worry! You'll be in your favorite strait-jacket in no time!" she wringed her hands in mock-worry. "Oh I shouldn't have taken her from her room! With her mental state and what-not."  
"Some days you amaze me, Bella, me boy."

"Yeah, I don't know if _you've_ noticed, but I'm a girl. I've been one for as long as I can remember."

"Maybe so, but _you, madam_ are the one whose been complaining of a flat chest and not getting her period yet."

"Hey!" she said defensively, as she crossed her arms over her chest. "It's not my fault I have Miss Hormonal as a best friend." Marina scowled. Now it was her turn to cover up her chest.

"I'll have you know -" she started in a low and menacing voice, but was then interrupted by a server.  
"Ma'am? That's been blinking for a few minutes now. Would you like me to seat you now?"  
He pointed to the 'little black thingy' as Bella had deemed it and she looked down at it too. It was indeed blinking. She covered up her embarrassment quickly.

"Thank god! It's about time you people got here! I went up and no one was there! Imagine that!"  
The poor employee opened up his mouth in shock. "Are you going to stare and drool all over the carpet? Because I'm sure this restaurant makes enough money to clean their floors with liquids _other_ than saliva." Marina sneered.

He looked down and saw that he _had_ been drooling. He wiped his mouth quickly and led the fiery-tongued girl and her sniggering friend over to a prepared table.

"S-someone will be with you shortly." he stuttered quickly, not wanting to invoke the wrath of this girl. She cocked up one eyebrow at him then shot her friend a glance. They both burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry, but I don't see the joke." he said rather coldly. That statement sobered them up, but only for a few seconds. They were howling with laughter now. After a few seconds of laughter, and a couple glares from customers and other employees, her friend managed to choke out "That was a nice one Marina!"  
"Whew! Yup! I even, I even got him to stutter!" she said through her laughs. She sobered up once again though and held out her hand to the poor confused server. "I'm sorry for scaring you, it's just a game we play to freak people out. And I got you pretty scared didn't I?" she asked, a smile playing it's way onto her lips while she shook his hand and sat down again. The server chose not to answer her question. "So… Jake," she read his name tag. "You don't want to answer the question? That's fine, I already know the answer. But anyway...Onto restaurant matters!" this girl was one of a kind, and she sort of got stuck in his head. And she could definitely read people. As she was talking to him, he was forced to come out of his musings and listen to their order.

"…I'll take a coke and a Caesar Salad. And my friend Bella here will have…What do you want?"

"I can order for myself, thank-you-very-much Marina."

_Her name is Marina_. Thought the server dreamily.

"But I'll have the same thing as my friend." Bella ended.

He wrote down their orders and left to register them. Meanwhile in a hospital nearby…

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Dr. Gregory House leaned back in his office chair, throwing a blue and red tennis ball up and down. When he tired of this activity, he pulled out his gameboy, relishing in the peace he had until Cuddy discovered that he wasn't watching General Hospital in his favorite coma patient's room. He thought, that since the most obvious place that he wouldn't hide in, would be the best place to hide in, because Cuddy probably wouldn't look in his office. While Cuddy ran around the hospital burning calories, he relaxed. It was a win, win situation in his point of view. He heard his door open.

"House." said a male voice from the doorway. He didn't look up from his video game.  
"Not now Jimmy, I'm busy." he replied as the other man took a few steps into his room.  
He grabbed House's gameboy and snapped it shut.

"Wilson! You know how neglected he's been since Cuddy loaded me up with a ton of clinical thingies and doctor type duties!" House said, gesturing sadly to his gameboy.

"House! Cuddy's coming! I just wanted to warn you…"

"Why ever would she come to _my_ office?" House asked, feigning sweet innocence.  
Wilson rolled his eyes. "Try hiding under the desk," Wilson suggested, "Though I doubt you'll be able too." he added as an afterthought.

"I bet you I can!" House challenged. Then he crouched down and crawled with his left leg dragging his right one behind. Wilson watched with an amused expression on his face as his best friend pulled his cane and his right leg completely under the desk. "I won!" House called gleefully from under the table.  
"Shh! She's here!" Wilson said. Then the door opened.

"Wilson…" she said suspiciously. "What are you doing in House's office? _Alone_?"

"Hello Cuddy! Well, you see. I'm in his office because I paged him to meet here."

"Why would you want to meet in his office? Yours is just a balcony away." she pointed out. She smiled sweetly and Wilson had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Here," she said. "Let me page him again."  
Under the table House desperately tried to turn his pager off. But it was stuck in his pocket, at least he _thought_. Luckily though, Cuddy seemed to have trouble getting hers out too. But, to his horror, he realized it was sitting one the edge of his desk…

Wilson looked at the desk, where House's pager was sitting. He had to stop himself from laughing when he saw House's hand pop up, desperately groping around on his desk.

House, under the dark of the desk, reached his hand up and started feeling around for his pager. Then he heard a loud beeping sound. His hand froze. Then a series of events happened: Wilson burst out laughing, and he spotted a pair of high-heels walking toward him. Cuddy grasped his hand and pulled him out.  
"House! You have two hours of clinic duty to do today! What made you think that you didn't?" she said heatedly.

"Your inability to find me." he replied.

"You have a little girl with a runny nose, a boy who thinks he broke something, a lady with a rash…" House tuned her out. A few minutes later, Cuddy had finished and she handed him about twelve files.

"Have fun!" she said evilly.

"Hey! It's going to take me more than ten minutes to carry all of these!" he whined.  
"I'm sure that after a few years of walking with a cane leaves you able to carry a few little harmless files." she said and walked out of the room.

Wilson laughed, "Nice try. You actually going to carry these?"

"Wilson! I'm shocked! And you've known me _how long_?" he said, as paged the Ducklings to meet him in his office immediately. A few minutes later, Cameron, Foreman, and Chase all walked into the room.

"What's up?" Chase asked.

"I have a task for you." He handed them four files each. "You must do clinic duty from now on, Cuddy's orders." he lied.

"Yeah, right!" said the Ducklings in unison.  
"Maybe so, but if you don't , you're fired!" he said.

"Yes, master." Cameron said sarcastically and walked out the door.

"Poor Cameron," said House, smirking. "She can't remember that she's only supposed to say that in bed! But…Well, she's bound to forget sometimes."

The remaining men in the room rolled their eyes.

"Go do my - Er. Cuddy's clinic duty! What did you take up this job for? And now you don't want to _help the people_? I am so disappointed in you." House scolded, swimming in sarcasm.

"Whatever." Chase muttered as he and Foreman walked out of his office.

"What was that, my dear Wombat?" House called to them through the doorway.

"House, House, House…" muttered Wilson.

"Hey Jimmy," House began. "Ever seen _The Little Mermaid_?"

"Yes." he said. "About three decade's ago." he added under his breath.

"Well, you know that _song_ in it?"

"Are you being purposefully irritating?" Wilson asked.

"Well, in all likeliness, probably yes."

"Ugh."

"One of those songs reminds me of all your marriages."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, it's called _Poor, Unfortunate, Souls_."

"You're an ass."

"I know."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marina and Bella sat at a table facing the window so they were bathed in sunlight as they ate their much-needed real lunch. Marina had thick wavy just-past-the-shoulder length hair, with one dark green eye and one ice blue eye. It was strange, but she didn't look any less beautiful with different colored eyes. In fact she probably looked even prettier with them. She had a slender body and was slightly gangly.  
She was tan/pale depending on how often she went out that week.

Bella was slightly shorter than Marina. She had her dark brown hair a little bit past her ears. She was skinny and tan with big, deep hazel eyes. She was a little worried that they had sneaked out of school to go have a nice lunch, but didn't worry that much. Her best friend was extremely adventurous, she would risk everything to do what was right. The cafeteria was serving horrible out-of-date foods, and she couldn't bring lunches to school. Bella could bring lunches, but on days she forgot… Well, her friend had some health concerns. So they picked a close-by sandwich shop so they could have a decent lunch. Yes. Her friend would risk suspension for skipping out on lunch if the welfare of her body was at stake. And Bella did not want to know what they put in the food there.

Jake, their lovesick waiter, sat staring dreamily at Marina. _Some day_… He thought hopefully. His boss then yelled at him to get back to work, bringing him out of his reverie involving white dresses, romantic sunsets, and passionate kisses. He was truly infatuated.

Marina was enjoying herself. But was starting to get the chills. She was getting really cold. 5 minutes later her teeth started chattering, and she got a headache. She pushed her sandwich away. "Ugh. I don't feel good." she was sweating. "Its all cold and my head hurts." an instantly alarmed Bella got up and felt her forehead. "You're burning! You definitely have a fever. There's a hospital down the street with a walk in clinic."

"O-kay" she answered shakily. Her muscles were starting to hurt. Jake ran over.

"Is something wrong?"

"She just came over with a fever. I don't know what's up. Were going to the walk-in clinic down at Princeton Plainsboro."

"Need a ride?"

"Yeah, thanks."

So they piled into Jakes back-seat as he drove them up the street. Bella was worried about Marina. She held her hand and stroked her head. While Marina moaned a bit about how all her muscles were achy and how her back hurt really badly. They pulled in.

"Thank you." she said to Jake.

"Here, let me help you." he offered. Then they each wrapped one of her arms around their shoulders and dragged her in. When they got to an exam room she lay down in the fetal position. Bella hovered over her in anxiety and Jake stayed to one side. The door opened and an old looking man came in. He walked with a cane. "Hello! I'm Dr. House and I'll be your attending-physician for the day. I see you just came in here. And I'm going to assume that she," he points to Marina. "Is the sick one." Bella and Jake nod. "Okay, best friend and boyfriend here right?" he asked.

"Um, I'm Bella and I'm her best friend, this man over here is Jake. We don't really know him, he was just a server at the restaurant we were eating at and he offered to drive us to the hospital since neither of us are old enough to drive yet." Bella supplied.

"How old are you guys?" House asked, somewhat interested.

"I'm 14, and Marina here just turned 15 this November sir, on the third. Were freshmen at the public High School two blocks down the street."

"What are your symptoms, and don't give me your life story for this one." _Ha! That's a first. She called me 'sir'!_

"Oh, well we were just eating and she said she was getting cold and had a headache. I felt her forehead and she had a fever. She was also saying that her back was hurting. Is this just the influenza type thingy?"

Now this case was getting interesting. He silently got up and rummaged around a drawer. He pulled out a thermometer and stuck it in her mouth. "I assume you know to put this under your tongue and keep it there?" he asked.

"Aye, aye captain…" she murmured.

Bella was delighted. _She's well enough to make a joke_! A few minutes later, the thermometer beeped. House checked her temperature. "105.4" he said. Bella clapped her hands over her mouth. Suddenly, Marina rolled over and threw-up all over House's jeans and shoes. "Perfect." he spat. "Well, your gonna have to miss school a little longer kiddies, I'll have a room in the ICU ready in 5min."

"Okay." said Bella mournfully. _Well, it looks like were going to be suspended fighting for Marina's health. Just for different health concerns._

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So my fabby readers(should I get any;)) How did you like it? I didn't think I botched it up too badly, eh?  
Oh well. If I did tell me, If I didn't praise me.  
Or just give me a review that bears good tidings! (but if it's bad, I don't care)  
I've reposted this chapter so that it will be easier to read. And, just to make you smile, heres a little story that happened to me!

We went to Ti'huana Flats for lunch. They had all thes hot sauces and a scale fore hotness:_ Sissy Sauce, _I can't remember, _TearJerker, Deathwish._ There was only 1 Deathwish, it was called _Endorphin Rush_, supposed to be 1000 times hotter than a jalepeno. So, my older brother gets this, and tries it. His face turns all red and splotchy and tears start coming out, and Roman _never_ cries. I try a tiny bit and my throat burns, but that's all. So, as we were leaving, my brother sticks his finger in the hot sauce and shoves a _huge_ glob of it in my mouth. It was not pretty. But most of it got on my lips, so I thought I would be okay. _Wrong!_ Now, as I type this, my lips are burning. So, I hope I made you smile telling you my story, and hopefully enough smiles to give me a review! Thanks!

Paige/ ilovgregoryhouse


	2. Wombat Torture

Title - Life Lines  
Rating - T (for mild language)  
Disclaimer - Do I really need it?  
Too lazy to do a word count, count them yourself! ;)

Congratulations to the first reviewer! And the winner is… house-of-insanity! Well done, thanks!  
Sorry for the formatting issues everyone! It was a mistake and I'll never make a mistake again! Promise!  
Cross my heart! (I am not sticking a needle in my eye:P) This may get a little confusing too, but very important at some parts, and boring at others. Third chappie will have some action.

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"I think I'm gonna go now." Jake said. "I don't want to get fired."

Bella merely nodded. Jake walked out and drove back, worried for Marina.  
Dr. House came in with three other doctors who introduced themselves as Dr.'s Chase, Foreman, and Cameron. They helped move Marina to room 213. Bella followed along behind them.

"Hello, Bella. Er, what exactly were you doing at a restaurant?" questioned Cameron.

"Oh," said Bella distractedly. "We went because Marina was always worried for her health every lunchtime at school." she laughed bitterly. "I guess she was right to be worried."

"So you skipped out of lunch? Were going to have to notify the school that Marina left to go to the hospital."

"Tell them what we did; I kind of want to be suspended now, so that I can be with her in the hospital…" Bella trailed off.

"Well, thank you for the information." she said to Bella. Then continued to her boss. "House, I'm going to call the school and get the parents number. Okay?" House nodded.

"I can give you her mom's cell. And she doesn't have a dad. He supposedly disappeared before she was born." Bella supplied, trying to help her friend. She gave Cameron the number.Then added to herself, "Oh, her mom will be so worried, especially since she just got back!"

"Just got back from what?" asked a curious House.

"She was kidnapped for a total of 6 days. I didn't know where she went! I kept trying to call her cell but it never rang… Then one day I got a call from her, she said she had been kidnapped, when she came back on the plane -"

"Plane?"

"Yeah, she was taken to Brazil."

"Was she vaccinated?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, good. So that rules out Malaria, Yellow fever, and a few others."

"She was taken to the middle of the rainforest and escaped on the second day; she spent the other four trying to get out! She came back about 5 days ago. We were all so happy… and now this. But her kidnapper is in jail now. So we don't need to worry about him." Bella concluded.

"Hmm." House rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Ow! My back!" moaned Marina from her new ICU bed. Foreman scurried off to care for her. Cameron came back. "The school knows about Marina, and so do her parents. They also say that you can get off for today and no more, Bella." Cameron said. Bella nodded. She hoped her friend would be okay…

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Jake had lied. He never went back to work. He had gone back to his dingy apartment building. His mom and dad were out. He went to the phone book and looked in the Z's. They were the only family in the area with the last name 'Zora'. He wrote down their address and set off in his car again, destination clutched in a piece of paper in his hand.

She had a somewhat small house. He waited until a woman came running out. She had the same hair and almost the same face as Marina. Her mother had two dark green eyes instead of one. Also a few of her features were different.

When she was long gone, _probably heading for the hospital_, he pulled up to the street and walked up to the door. He crossed his fingers and turned the door handle. _YESS_! In her worries about her daughter she must have left the door unlocked by accident. _Well, bad for her, better for me._ He thought as he stepped inside their home…

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House and the Ducklings all gathered around the white board in the conference room.

On the board House had written: _Fever, Backaches, and Vomiting_. The team sat guessing the diagnoses.

"Could be Lupus?" said Cameron.

"Have you noticed how often we've been throwing out that diseasein the last season?" House asked them all. "But no, I don't think that's it." he concluded.

"Vasculitis?" pondered Chase.

"And how often we said _that_ for the season before the last one?"

"Er, not really." they all answered.

"Now, go get me an LP, check her vitals, and draw her blood. Three tasks, three people. Chop, chop!"

"What test do you want us to do?" asked Foreman.

"Any test you can think of." replied House as he twirled his cane in the air. They all filed out of the room, leaving House free to doodle. (His gameboy was out of batteries, and Cuddy put the nurses on red alert should he go into one of the coma patients rooms. He couldn't think of a new ball trick either.)His doodle was of Marina lying on a table, three hooded figures hovering over her menacingly. Bella was to the side, soaking wet and flooding the room with her tears. And behind them was a throne with a man in it, instead of a staff he had a cane, he also had a crown. To the left of the king was a woman who was bowing. This was Cuddy. And in the whole background bottles of Vicodin rose to the ceiling. They were all stick figures. He scribbled out the whole thing and left it sitting. He went to the bathroom. Inside, he heard the door open and two people talking.

"…can't! Plus, he's such a grouch it doesn't matter anyways."

"Chase, I'm sure he has a reason."

"What? His leg hurts? He's crippled? Yeah, it's sad and all but why does he take it out on the rest of us?"

"Come on Chase! The mans a genius! I think it kinda rules out his attitude. Plus, you gotta admit, when he's not grilling us it _is_ pretty funny."

"Whatever, Foreman."

"Why do you think Cuddy's never fired him before?"

"Yeah, you got a point."

"Well, I'm leaving." said Foreman.

The door opened and closed again. House heard Chase muttering to himself.

"Whatever Foreman, I plan on doing something about it, whether you like it or not."

House mentally told himself to keep his eye on Chase. And torture him a bit, entertain Foreman.He smirked at the thought.When Chase left he went back to conference room, only to find the Ducklings already there.

"So." House said as he started on his 'torture Chase' plan. "I say we kill her and be done with it."

"What?" said Chase, alarmed. Cameron and Foreman just rolled their eyes.

"Well, come on, I'm such a grouch it doesn't matter anyways." he said mockingly in a hideously fake Australian accent. Foreman and Chase caught each others eye. Cameron just looked confused.

"What?" he asked them, still in that horrible voice, at their questioning stares. "My leg hurts! I'm crippled! It's sad an all but why do I take it out on the rest of you?" Now Cameron really looked confused, Chase looked very scared, and Foreman was just glad he had stuck up for House in the bathroom.

"Well, I guess since I'm a genius it rules out my attitude. Plus, it's _very_ funny when I'm grilling you. Why do you think Cuddy's never fired me before?" House put on his 'mocking Foreman voice' for this one; Chase's face had now drained of all color.

"Whatever Foreman, I will do something about this whether you like it or not!" House said suddenly, resuming back to his 'Chase Voice'. Foreman shot a quizzical look at Chase. He hadn't heard _that_ line. Chase stood up.

"I-I have to go to the bathroom." he stammered. Using the first excuse he could think of to get out of there. Foreman put his face in his hands at his friends stupity, but quickly pulled them away to watch the show.

"But _why_ Chase? You were just in there. Did you know you can hear the most _interesting _conversations in the bathroom?" House asked him. Chase just left the room; unable to take the embarrassment. "So, Foreman. Was that entertainment enough for you?" House continued.

"I think you did an excellent job." Foreman replied, smirking.

"Well, thats why i'm here, to provide entertainment to the world... Now, what are her vitals?"

Cameron gave them suspicious glares before sweeping out of the room. Supposedly to do her doctor-ly duties.

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Marina was feeling better. Her fever had spiked then dropped back to normal in a couple of hours. Bella was by her side.

"Hey." rasped Marina.

"Omigosh! She's alive! Don't worry ma'am, their sending your favorite strait-jacket to this hospital." Bella attempted tojoke, but she couldn't mask her worry. Marina cracked a smile. "But it's not the saaaaame!" she whined. They both laughed. House walked in.

"Oh my gosh!" he exclaimed sarcastically."You've both developed some strange new cough!"

They rolled their eyes. "So, when can Igo home?"

"Nort anytime soon. We still don't know what's wrong with you yet. It's not normal for a fever to flare up that suddenly and disappear as quickly as it did."

His brutal honesty scared her. "Hey mom!" Marina said suddenly.

"Hi honey! How are you feeling?" her mother replied. House froze. He knew that voice.

"Is you're mothers name Amanda?" he asked Marina slowly and carefully. Her mother froze. She knew that voice, she'd know it anywhere.

"Yes, Dr. House. Are you psychic?" asked Marina jokingly. But House didn't answer her; he turned around slowly, as if not wanting to see what was behind him. He dropped his cane when he saw the woman standing in the doorway. "No, but I'm hallucinating. And it's very, very convincing."

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How was that? Sorry if this chapter was boring. I promise you things will get exciting in the next chapter. If I don't, you can punch yourself and pretend it's me! Deal:P

So? Did I leave you squirming in your seats for more? What is Jake doing breaking into her home? Why does House _think_ he's hallucinating? (oh no! I've said too much! You didn't see anything……..)

It's all in the next chapter. I just realized, I have given you several forms of cliffhangers…Tee-hee!

If my story looks all weird again, I apologize. I tried to double space between dialogue and paragraphs so hopefully it will be easier to read for certain ancient 17-year-old-eyes! (and for the rest of the population too!)

My medical mumbo jumbo may not be up to scale either, even though I researched the mystery ailment which you don't know. ;)

Fanks  
Paige/ ILGH (they should put that on a shirt…;)

P.s. - Please R&R! As of right now, I have 46 hits, and 1 review. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this? When you review, I'm happy, I write better, when you don't, I'm sad. Which is why it took me _way_ longer than I should have to write this chapter. But you should be glad I have stats, so I know I have to please the silent community. But more reviews people!

P.p.s. - h-o-i, thanks for reviewing me, unlike _some_ people…..(hint hint)

_collective sigh of relief throughout homes all over the land as you see I've stopped rambling_


	3. Jake on the Move

Title - Life Lines  
Rating - T (No explanations!)  
Disclaimer - If I owned House the third season would have already started!  
No more word counts! Ever!

Did anyone notice how in the first season they were always guessing Vasculitis, and in the second season they were always guessing Lupus? I wonder if anyone caught that in the last chapter… and, just to torture you a bit, I probably won't straighten out all of my cliffhangers, just to keep you on your toes!

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Jake took a few glances around the home. It was nice; he could definitely imagine living here. _With Marina…_ he thought dreamily. Slinging his bag on the counter, he rummaged around for a bit until he found a shiny black metal box with six codes to unlock it. He punched them in. When he opened the box it contained tiny little microphones with suction cups on the end. He walked around and found what looked like a teenagers room. He placed one inside a fish-shaped ceramic pot, it was laying on it's stomach with an open mouth facing the room. Only if you looked very closely inside could you spot the gleam of the contraptions metal handle. He quickly moved to the family room, sticking another one inside the dirt of a potted plant. He had one more microphone left, and he wasn't going to use it on this house. He'd already used enough for that. He walked back towards Marina's room. One wall was deep red, another was olive green. The other two were tan-ish-beige-ish. It was not neat like the rest of the meticulously kept house. He sat down on her twin bed. _Twin won't do when we live together_, the twenty-one year old thought greedily. He surveyed photographs along the back of the door. _A lot of them have that girl in it, Belinda - No, Betty - No, Bella! Yes that's it. Hmm. I wonder… Maybe she's a lesbian. No! I _have_ to be with her! And if she is, I'll make her be with me anyway!_ he thought fiercely. There were other photographs too. Some of guys, much to Jakes displeasure, and he also spotted two celebrity signed photographs on the wall. Under the pictures was a little folder. He took a peek inside; it was filled with all kinds ofartwork. Portraits, doodles, paintings, abstracts, and computer art. She was a good artist. On her dresser was a clay sculpture of a seahorse wrapped around a few pieces of curling, twisting seaweed, with a shell on the bottom. At the base, the words _By Marina_ were etched. Her bed was unmade and there were clothes strewn all over the floor, including bras and underwear, one of which Jake picked up and pocketed. He left the room, and walked out the front door.

He drove to the hospital and parked right next to an orange motorcycle in a handicapped space. _Strange, I didn't think cripples could ride a motorcycle. Well, now I know_. Jake thought idly. He walked in and went to the main desk. "Excuse me, can you tell me where the room of Marina Zora is?"

"What is your relation?" the nurse asked.

"Close friend." he lied.

"Okay. Room 213 in the ICU."

"Thank you." he said sweetly.

"Anytime."

He wandered off to her room. When he came in, he noticed she was asleep; in an empty room. _Perfect_, he thought smiling. He suctioned the microphone just under one of her machines, he didn't know what it was called. With his work done, he turned to leave, but stopped. He turned towards Marina and bent down, gazing at her sleeping features, and her lovely lips… The temptation to kiss her was just to strong, and he had no problem giving into it…  
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House and limped down the hallway towards Marinas room, his team in tow closely behind.  
As they neared her hospital bed they saw a figure huddled over, kissing her.

"Uh, who is _that_?" asked Cameron, pointing into the room.

"I don't know." he replied. "What, am I supposed to know whether she has a boyfriend or not? It's _you're_ obsession todelve into peoples personal lives,not mine." Cameron crossed her arms and stopped talking while Chase and Foreman were smirking. "Stop smirking Chase, your not off the hook yet after that little bathroom stunt of yours." Chase gulped. "So, ready for some entertainment Foreman?"

"I can only dream of what you'll doto this guy." replied Foreman.

House opened the door to the room. The guy did not stop, apparently he was to absorbed in what he was doing.

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

House hit his cane on the wall, making a very loud noise, Jake jumped. "Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!" called House loudly at the same time he hit his cane on the wall. "But since I saw Santa Clause kissing patient under the I.V., and daddy _did_ come home to catch it, no breakfast foods for Mr. Clause. He's too fat anyways…"

"Huh… Whozat?" asked a groggy Marina, eyes closed. "I'm a-kizn-oo?" Then she opened her eyes. They instantly narrowed. "What are _you _doing here?" she asked Jake.

"Just visiting a friend!" he said cheerfully, fully masking his nervousness.

"You are no friend of mine, you are just a gullible restaurant waiter who likes to stalk 15-year-old girls -" she started, but was interrupted by House.

"And kiss them, when we came by he was kissing you in your sleep, that's why I woke you up." he tattled. Her eyes widened.

"Really?" she asked them all disbelievably. Each doctor nodded. "Eww, ew, ew ,ewwww!" she fretted. Then, much to House's delight, she remembered her anger. "YOU _STALK_ AND_ KISS_ INNOCENT 15-YEAR-OLD GIRLS! YOU SICK PERVERT! I WAS _SLEEPING_! AND YOU _SNUCK_ IN HERE! YOU ARE HORRIBLE! IT'S CALLED _CONSENT_! I NEVER WAS FREAKING YOU OUT BEFORE! IT WAS BECAUSE YOU WERE SUCH. AN. IDIOT! AND YOU STUTTERED BEFORE! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW, CRY? YOU BABY! AWW, POOR CHILD MOLESTER, HE'S CRYING, I BET THAT'S WHAT YOU DO! YOU'RE A CHILD MOLESTER! _GET OUT OF MY ROOM!"_ she roared. Jake didn't move.

"M-m-marina, I-I - can't - l-live -"

"Did you hear _anything_ that I just said?" she asked, reverting her voice to a low, dangerous, and menacing one. "Wait, what the hell is in your pocket?" she reached out and snatched the underwear that he had put in his pocket before._ Busted_. "Underwear? UNDERWEAR? THIS IS _MY_ UNDERWEAR? WHAT THE HELL ARE _YOU_ DOING WITH IT HOW DID YOU GET INSIDE MY HOUSE? YOU FREAK! GET OUT! OUT! OUT! OUT!

"N-n-no,I-Ilo-" started a still stuttering Jake.

The doctors moved out of the doorway so Jake could leave. Now they were all on one side of the bed, and she turned around to face them. "Can I borrow this?" she asked House meekly, pointing to his cane. He was only to happy to oblige, loving every second of watching Jake getting reamed. Marina sat up in bed and held the cane behind her back. She glared at him. When he still didn't move, she raised the cane holding it like a baseball bat. He eyed the cane up and down, as if trying to figure out whether she would hit him or not. Marina swung the cane down and hit his ankles in one swift, clean motion. He fell forward and caught himself before he hit the ground. When he stood up, he was a few feet closer to the doorway.

"Now," Marina said in a sickly sweet voice that could almost always mean trouble, "That wasn't so bad was it? You can move to the door, or I can _trip you there_." she stood up with her last three words, and he could see most of her long golden legs under her short hospital gown. His mouth dropped and he stood staring at them. She looked down to see what he was staring at. "Ugh, pervert…" she muttered. Then without warning she brought the cane down again, but as a surprise attack, she brought it upward suddenly and hit him right in the crotch. He was brought down to his knees.

Cameron cackled loudly. "Ouch."

The other doctors snorted.

"Here you go!" she said cheerily, holding the cane out to House.

"Eww! Cooties!" he said in 'little boy' voice, while holding the cane barely.

She laughed. "Thank you." she said to House. He nodded and limped towards the door, pausing where Jake lay. "Up! Up! As fun as it was seeing a twenty-one year old getting chewed out by 15-year-old girl, I have clinic duty. Which means if I don't do it, _I_ will get chewed out by Cuddy," the other doctors laughed at House's words. "So, I need to find a suitable hiding spot where she won't find me. Which means you, my little child kisser, need to move out of the doorway. _Now_." House concluded. Jake didn't move. House nudged him with his sneakers a bit. He knew it would hurt his leg to climb over him.

"_Stop kicking me_." Jake hissed from the ground. Then, when House didn't stop, he grabbed House's right leg and twisted it. House gasped and fell down, and his bum leg started having spasms.

"How did you know I was twenty-one!" he yelled at House.

"Your bad breath, which has been filling up the room, has the distinct odor of alchohol, you look young, so you could have been a naughty teen, but you just admitted to being that age anyways." House said in his normal voice. The other doctors were impressed, even when House was down he would still solve a puzzle.

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Cuddy had had a bad day today, especially since she couldn't find House, and she needed to yell at him, to vent her anger on someone. She turned to room 213 where House's patient was, and was shocked to find the patient standing up, while the three doctors in the room did nothing to get her back down. She burst into the room, the door hit Jake, and she looked to see House sprawled on the ground, his leg having spasms, and some guy who was also on the floor, holding his crotch. "Whatever happened to your leg is probably payback for you hitting this man in the crotch." she said pointedly. House didn't say anything, he just looked up at Cuddy with pain in his eyes, then went back to rubbing his thigh.

"No clinic duty for me today Cuddy, my leg hurts, I don't know what's wrong with it." he said very convincingly.

"Yes, that infarction a few years ago doesn't have anything to do with your leg hurting." she said sarcastically, then clapped her hands over her mouth. All the doctors gasped. Even Cameron said, "How could you Cuddy!"

While they were all in shock, they heard a small voice from the floor, "Yes, that's exactly right, I'm a medical mystery."sneered House, and no one doubted that he was angry. He finally got him self up and walked over to Jake. "Move your ass, kid." he snarled, and kicked him. Jake quickly scrambled out of the doorway. Then ran out.

"House!" said Cuddy reproachfully.

He still limped out the door, but before he was out of earshot he turned around and looked down at Jake. He popped a Vicodin and said, " You better hope to _god_ that this is another hallucination." then he continued on his way.

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"Another hallucination?" asked Foreman, "Has he had another one today?"

"I don't think so, he guessed my mothers name, and then he turned around, he dropped his cane, and said he was hallucinating. But I was there, so..." said Marina.

"That's strange…" said Cameron.

"Yeah, House usually won't admit to having a problem, something must have happened to freak him out." added Chase

"I'll go talk to him," said Cuddy. "I need to apologize to him anyways…"

"What made you bring up his leg problem anyway? It's obviously a sensitive subject to him." said Marina. The other doctors looked at her in awe. "But what happened to make him have chronic pain? His leg wouldn't have been having a spaz attack if they had amputated. So that leaves Bypass and Debridement, I think. Which one?" Cuddy stopped on the way to the door, and went back to join the conversation.

"How do you know?" asked the impressed doctors, one because they wouldn't have expected her to know so much about infarctions, two because of her ability to read House.

"My mom knew someone who had one. Wait, hold on…" they could all see her thinking, and it reminded them of House. "They must know each other. But why would Dr. House think he was hallucinating?" None of the doctors said anything, they had just seen her brain go into overdrive. "I think, I think that we need to get them to meet up, to see each other again, so we can see their reaction. Because when she heard his voice, her face had went white. And vice versa."

"That sounds like a plan." Cuddy said.

"What sounds like a plan?" said Wilson, who had just walked in. "Oh, hi, I'm Dr. Wilson."

"Hey! Nice to meet you." Marina said.

"The plan is, wait, you won't tell House will you?" Cameron said.

"Depends on what it is."

"Why would he be telling Dr. House things? I've never seen you around here, no offense."

"Because he's House's best friend, Wilson is an Oncologist -" Cuddy had answered for Wilson, but was interrupted by: "I don't have cancer do I?"

"Well, House hasn't given me your file, and I've seen your symptoms, I don't think it's cancer." he smiled, and she looked relieved. "Don't worry, House is probably one of the best diagnosticians for miles." the rest of the doctors nodded in agreement. "Now, what are you planning? And if you don't tell me, I'll just tell House your plotting something, which will make him suspicious, and you will all probably be exploited in less than an hour." he smiled at them all.

"Dr. House would be able to figure it out in less than an hour?" asked Marina curiously.

"He has a big brain, and an even bigger ego." said Cuddy.

Marina laughed. "Really? Uh-oh. I've heard several times how smart he his."

"And his ability to insult you without even trying, don't forget that!" said Chase. The rest of them nodded.

"And his sarcasm levels top the charts." added Cameron.

"What you need to know about Dr. House, is, well, he's miserable. He doesn't allow himself to be sucked into emotion. He doesn't let anyone in. He has a barrier, that he puts up around himself, a wall, that nobody can break." said Wilson.

"And he only has one real friend." said Cuddy with a slight smile on her face. "Wilson. That's probably why you'll see him around here so much."

Marina sat in thought for a few moments. "How long have you had a thing for Dr. House, Dr. Cameron?" she asked, with a smile on her face. Everyone looked at Cameron.

"Her entire stay at the PPTH." said Foreman, smiling. Cameron was beet red.

"How'd you figure out her dirty little secret?" asked Chase.

"Well, it was kind of obvious. Her neck, ears, and cheeks have taken on a slight pink tone while we were talking about Dr. House, you were nervous; fidgeting and stuff too. Which means you're embarrassed and nervous about Dr. House, and that means that either you have a thing for him, you two are together secretly, or something happened between you two." Marina smiled. Everyone knew she was right, and everyone was reminded of House, the way she exploited Cameron, the way she assumed that she was right, being able to tell in the first place. She was smart, and very House-like. And House was almost always right, which was why they paid very close attention to what she said next.

"And Dr. Chase, I seemed to notice a very bitter tone in your voice when we were discussing Cameron's crush on Dr. House. Why is that?" she asked with a knowing smirk on her face. Everyone except Cameron was stifling laughter as Chase turned pink. "Don't worry, I already know what _you're_ hiding." She seemed to have the thought stuck in her head that everything she thought was right. Very House-ish. "Wilson!" she barked. Making everyone turn around to see where the real House was. "How long have you been cheating on your wife? You keep fingering you wedding band and there is not even the faintest tan-line, you must have to take it off a lot." Everyone was amazed that she had known this. But didn't say anything.

"What was that plan again?" asked Wilson in a high-pitched voice. Everyone quickly filled him in, from the moment they walked in to the moment House walked out.

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"Greg." said Amanda, catching up to House.

He spun around to see who had used his first name and then stopped cold. "You'resupposed to be dead." he said bluntly, and kept on walking.

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Howdy-doody folks. Still only one review. It will take you 30 seconds to make me write better, a minute to make me write EXCELLENT. PLEASE R&R. or else you die. It is an unspoken thing, you will die a little bit inside, each time you refuse to review someone.  
I'm happy to say that I've broken well past 50 hits, still one review. I have a lot more hits on the 1st chapter than the 2nd chapter, probably because the formatting turned out so bad they didn't want to bother with another crap chapter. Sorry if I got the infarction alternatives wrong, just tell me if I did, or anything else wrong.

(to the tune of twinkle, twinkle little star)

I.L.G.H. loves reviews,  
They make more updates, just for you,  
If you don't then I will die,  
Then no more fanfics for you, by I.  
I.L.G.H. loves reviews,  
They make more updates, just for you.

Thanks!  
Paige/ I.L.G.H.


	4. Past and Present

(I think we all know the title and the rating by now folks!)  
Disclaimer - The only thing I own are a pair of _socks_.

Okay folks! I reposted chapter 1 so you can all read it better! I also added something new at the bottom and you don't get to find out what it is until you go back and read it. It's all the way at the bottom. Anyhoo, I have a little quiz for you.

Which is your favorite character? A) House B) Wilson C) Cuddy D) Foreman E) Chase F) Cameron.

And least liked? Post your answer in your review!

Another one! How many of you people have ever been to Ti'huana Flats and tried the hot sauce _Endorphin Rush_ there? I have. More like, my brother forced it in my mouth! Tasted like crap too. Wasn't even good! If you make a hot sauce that is one of the hottest in the world and is 1000 times hotter than a jalapeño, then wouldn't you at least try to make it taste like something other than Noni Tea? Which also tastes like crap! To all of you who have read my new chapter 1, I've stopped burning now!

Onwards!

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"Greg wait!" Amanda called, chasing after him. Eventually she took a different route and ended up going into his office to wait there until he came in.

"Oh, you again." he said upon entering.

"I'm not dead, Greg! Can't you see!" a few tears were down her face now.

"You went missing 15 years ago. No one ever heard from you, you never answered any calls. The police gave up on you over a dozen years ago! Why are you so insistent on stopping me from believing you! What do you want from me!"

"I want you… to listen to my story, believe that I'm not dead, and accept my apologies."

"Sorry, Amanda, I got things to do, people to piss off, lives to save…" and with that he turned around and headed for the clinic. Anything was better than having the hurt that had been under the surface for so many years bubble up again.

_House's story_:

Amanda had been his best friend, ever since the age of ten. Even when he moved around. They did almost everything together and supported one another when they reached an all time low. It was perfect. Then, Greg went to med school, and Amanda went to an art school. Then she went to a different school so she could become a teacher. They still corresponded all through the years even though they never got to see each other, talking about how evil the teachers were, who they liked and didn't like, and any new relationships. Then one time, they decided to get together for a day. They had a great time, until they got drunk. Under the influence of the alcohol, they had had sex. When he had woken up in the morning, she had gone, and he never heard from her again. The police never found her. He had been so sad, especially since he had secret feelings for her! That's why he didn't have a lot of dates. Then, many years later, he had found Stacy, and fell in love. He had the infarction and they fell apart. He had opened up his heart twice and it had been set on fire. And he didn't want to do it ever again.

_Amanda's story_:

She and Greg had been inseparable since the age of ten. She was always so sad whenever he had to move, but always knew that they were still good. Around 15 she had started liking him as more than a friend. But she didn't want to ruin their beautiful friendship! He had shown no signs of liking her in any other way than a friend, so she never made a move. Eventually, they went their separate ways, but kept in touch. Then, one day, they met up and had a great time. It was wonderful seeing him in person again, instead of e-mail, letters, and phone calls. Then, that night they got drunk, and did the dirty deed. She woke up early in the morning, and realized what they did. She thought their friendship would be ruined, and he would never want anything to do with her again. She gathered up her belongings and left. Left her job, left the state, left for good. Because she didn't want to face any of it anymore. When she had Marina, she moved back to NJ. She didn't move back to the same city, but same state. A while later, when her daughter was six, she moved back to the past. And saw Greg sometimes. He never saw her. When she found out he had to go to the hospital, she went to, stayed around his room, just out of sight. Now, she had given up, her daughter was in danger. And after she had been kidnapped, she stopped to think that the way she had felt about losing her daughter was the way he had felt when he lost her. That was the other reason she had given up the whole act.

And now, she still stood in his office, tears streaming down her face, and wanted nothing more then for things to go back to the 'old times' even though she knew that would never happen. She was happy that James was still a friend. She had met him briefly and had heard about him from Greg.  
She sank down on the floor and cried into her hands. She had been so stupid!_ W_hy had she been so _stupid_ to run away? She had run away from shame. She just couldn't handle it. She was so disgusted with herself about how she had handled the situation, and, knowing what she had to tell him next, she desperately wanted to disappear all over again…

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Wilson and Cuddy both wanted to talk to House. As they neared his office, the sight that they saw was definitely unexpected. They saw a woman in House's office on the floor sobbing. They opened the door.

She lifted up her head at the sound. "Greg?" she croaked. "Oh, hello - wait, James?" she stood up.  
"Oh my gosh, Amanda!" they hugged. "Where have you been? Oh, you must have run into House, but he does have a right to be angry at you." he reminded her, after seeing her cry.

"I know. I'm just trying to explain everything to him, he said he-" she smiled, "had things to do, people to piss off, and lives to save." she gave a watery chuckle. "He still makes me laugh." then she broke down sobbing again.

"Uh, is there something I'm missing here?" asked Cuddy.

"Oh, hello, I'm Amanda. And yes, you probably are, but it's not my place to tell you, sorry."

"Oh, well I'm Dr. Lisa Cuddy and I'm the Dean of Medicine."

"Nice to meet you, Lisa, not exactly under the best circumstances, though."

"Well, I'm going to go look for House." said Cuddy, "Bye!" she left the room quickly.

Wilson stood surveying Amanda. "Why'd you do it?"

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House limped back towards the office. He heard Wilson in there and paused outside the door.

"Why'd you do it?" he heard him ask her.

"I can't tell you James, I'm sorry. I'm trying to tell Greg that but… He's still angry. I wish I never had feelings for him now…. I hope we can still be friends…" he heard her reply.

When he couldn't take it any longer, he opened the door. "Out, Jimmy. I need to talk to our dearly departed." Wilson nodded and left the room.

"Okay. Tell me your story, Manda'."

She sighed in relief when he used her old nickname. Then she began, and told everything. How she had had feelings for him, why she had run away, and her secret that only him and her could ever share.

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Mwahhahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahah! You don't get to find out the secret until chapter 6! HAHA! A little plan to keep you reading. smirks

This was short, but were focusing on everyone except them in the next chapter. So you can all be anxiously awaiting!

Thanks Charlotte! Your awesome! You give me nice reviews and it's fun PMing with you.

Thanks to all my lovely reviewers I'm happy to say I have 5 reviews! Yayyy!

Thanks!  
Paige/ILGH


	5. Wet Dreams

Disclaimer - I own my own.

**Poor Unfortunate SOUULS!lol Sorry Char. I had to do that:)**

And as my friend Liz rightfully reminded me in her review, she has had to put up with my moaning since she was three. SO, thank you Liz! Yay, clapclapclap. Okay! Now that were done with that….  
Here is the next installment of Life Lines.

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Cuddy, after passing House, decided not to talk to him just yet. She figured he had important things to discuss. She went in search of his lackeys. She didn't have to look far; theyhad been predictablyin the conference room, sipping coffee, chatting, and doing the crossword. "Good news!" she exclaimed.

"What?" they chorused.

"Okay! Well, me and Wilson passed House's office looking for him, and guess what?"

"What." they repeated dully.

"There was a sobbing woman on the floor of his office, _sobbing _in House's office, I tell you.."

"Who was the woman?" asked Cameron.

"Marina's mommy dearest. Apparently she had a run-in with him, and he refused to listen to her. And Wilson knows her. From way back when, apparently, the same as House."

"So, you just left?" asked Chase incredulously.

"Well, what would you have done?" snapped Cuddy. "And Wilson sure as hell wasn't nice Wilson! He was a standoffish Wilson with a very thin layer of sugar. And, he said that House had a right to be angry with her. Very mysterious…"

"Do you know when Wilson's getting back to you with the 411?" Foreman questioned.

"Oh, yeah, the _Bad News_. Apparently it's only between the three musketeers." Cuddy replied.

House limped into the office. His shoulder had big wet marks on it where Amanda had wept. Everyone stared at him.

Cameron could see sadness in his face, Chase could see anger in his face, and Foreman could see confusion. Cuddy could see a mix of all of them. "So how was your date with Amanda?" asked Chase, breaking the ice, trying to be cute, and trying to get a straight answer.

"Wet." he gesturing to his shoulder. "Crying woman are a turn-off. But then of course I don't know your strange Australian ways. So, anyone else going to try to ask me how I know Amanda Zora? Good! That's what I thought you'd say." he said before anyone could answer him. "Now, let me get one thing straight. It's none of your business. So don't go asking her, me or Wilson anything about it. She already told off Cuddy!" he popped a Vicodin. "Okay, _now _you can go run off and gossip like the giggling little girls you all really are inside." They took that as their cue to leave. But they stayed just outside the door for a fraction of a second, and watched Houses normal features slide off his face to be replaced by an exhausted one. A face that felt the weight of the world carried on its shoulders.

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Marina and Bella were in room 213, gossiping away. The conversation had gotten round to the cuteness of the doctors.

"Which do you think is cutest? Chase, Foreman, House, or Wilson?"

"Wilson? I haven't met him yet."

"Oh yeah, you weren't there. He came in to chat with us after that complete freak left. He's pretty cute, but he's a cheater, so I wouldn't want to date him."

"How do you know he's a cheater? Experience?" she joked, tinged with curiosity.

"I made one of my all-mighty deductions."

"Yup, no arguing with that." Bella smiled. "I think Chase is cute, but he seems a little too…."

"Shallow?"

"Yeah. Foreman is just kind of…Bleh. ya know? Too boring."

"I agree. But I like House."

Bella choked. "The old man with a cane who looks like he's never even touched, or even _used_ a razor?" she asked incredulously.

"He's hot! His incredible eyes, wit, and he'll do anything to save someone. I've heard all the stories, gossip around here spreads like wildfire! He reads peoples people like it's a natural talent! It probably is too! And he has got the biggest brains. Hell, he even makes walking with a cane cute!"

"Ew. Whatever medicine they're giving you I should ask them to change it!"

"Man…Whatever! You're just saying that because you can't find anyone you like!"

"I haven't met Wilson yet! Besides, he's such a jerk!"

"Yeah, I know…" sighed Marina, but the way she did it was that she definitely thought of this a Pro, not a Con.

"Well, it's not as if were actually going to date them right?"

"Yeah…." she replied breathlessly.

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Jake stood in his room listening to the girls' conversation. _So that's why she doesn't like me. It's that House character. Well, I'll take care of him. If I can't have Marina then nobody can!_

You could hear a cell phone ringing. Apparently, Bella had to go home.

"Get better!" she called.

Then there was silence.

He switched to the sounds from inside the house. Silence.

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Marina snuck out of her hospital bed, ripping off tubes, I.V.'s and such. She went into her closet and pulled on a bikini top and bottom, and then a flowing white dress made of some sort of gauzy material. She slipped out of the hospital unnoticed, hailed a taxi, and got herself dropped off at the beach.

"A pretty face like yours doesn't need to pay." the driver leered at her.

She smiled, not afraid. "Thank you." she said coolly.

Marina walked slowly along the road, boardwalk, and then sand. The smell of the ocean mist hung in the air, salty, like black mangrove leaves. Tiny little bird footprints dotted the ground, and small plastic pails and buckets belonging to small children lay half-buried, forgotten, by their owners in the sand.

The crashing and receding of waves reached her ears, growing louder by the second, then the hiss of the water rolling down over the sand. Before it can complete its sound, it's swallowed up again by another crest falling down, down, down…Giant swells were rolling into the shoreline, providing the beautiful music needed for the peaceful calm she wanted.

The low, musical cry of the gulls are carried to her ears by the wind, whispering in her ear…_Get out, get out, get out_. She ignored the voices in her head and stared up at the star strewn sky.

"I didn't think you'd come." called a male voice arising from the sea-oats.

"I wasn't sure I'd come either." she answered, laughing lightly.

He walked over to her, his feet padding on the sand. _Thump. Thump. Thump_. He sat down next to her, his face hidden in shadow. He leaned in and kissed her, softly, deeply, lovingly. And she the same. He moved forward into a patch of moonlight. Revealing none other than Jake. "I'll see you around." he said softly, and walked off.

"Is he bothering you?" asked a new male voice. This guy also came over. He repeated the exact same actions as Jake had. When he moved into the moonlight, she gasped. "Cody?" she asked.

"Yup, it's me!"

"Oh…but, why did you kiss me? And why are you here? You got in that tractor accident when you were 14. I remember, the whole school was at your funeral. We had our own little service too."

"I suspect I'm just your imagination trying to tell yousomething." he shrugged. "Oh, well." He began to walk towards the shoreline when there was a loud, rumbling sound. He smiled. "I guess my ride is here." he peered off into the distance. Then he gave a cheery wave. Marina waved back half-heartedly.

A tractor was rolling along the beach, completely out of control. "Cody!" she screamed. She tried to run to him, to help him, get him to run away! He smiled sadly and lifted up his hand in farewell. The tractor ran clean over him, and Cody held on as it drove away, his mangled body dragging behind him leaving an unwelcome red carpet.

She burst into tears. Cody had been one of her friends. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder and looked up into the face of Gregory House. Her tears stopped. "It'll be okay." he comforted.

"I'm not in trouble for sneaking out, am I?" she asked anxiously.

"No, I came by to get you to bring you back." he smiled. He bent down and kissed her on the lips.

"House." she murmured.

"Yes?" he broke away.

"No! Keep doing that!" she said.

"Excuse me?"

She had closed her eyes in the moment of the kiss. When she opened them, she found herself in a hospital room, with all four of her doctors staring at her strangely. She turned bright red.

"You ripped out your I.V.'s in your sleep. Then you started saying 'Jake', then you were yelling 'Cody' then you started screaming bloody murder and crying." House said. "We woke you up."

Marina's face turned bright red and the other doctors snorted. She knew that they had heard the last name she had called out, along with the few small sentences after it.

"So." said House loudly. "Who knew girls could have wet dreams?_ I_ didn't." and then he left the room.

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Just in case the dream confused you, the things that the docs heard are: "Jake.", "Cody!", 'her screaming and crying', "House" , and "No! Keep doing that!"  
And the two sentences "Yes?" and "Excuse me?" are spoken by the real House.  
Wow! Dreams are fun to write! Oh, and if anyone is all confused about the tractor death thing, last night I saw a movie and one the main characters died because they were run over the tractor by accident. So, I kind of borrowed that idea and tweaked it.  
Thanks Everyone!  
Paige/ILGH

**MNA RoX - poor unfortunate souls!**


	6. Distractions

Disclaimer – I own NOTHING whatsoever. NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALLLLL! Except for a _few_ things. 

I'm changing my divider-thingies in this chapter. I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a while, but school started in the last week and my plot ran out on me, so I had to try to remember it. Ive remembered half of it so far, so hopefully as I'm writing this it'll all come back to me.

Onwards!

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Marina covered her face with her blanket. She could not _believe_ that the doctors had heard what she had been saying in her dream! Silent tears began to fall from her eyes. And it wasn't as if she had been doing anything _nasty_ with any of the dream guys. But she couldn't really tell them that all she had been dreaming was just a kiss. Or a few.

Now they all probably thought she was some sex-seeking teenager. She drew in a shaky breath and turned away, her face still covered and wet.

She took out her cell-phone and called for Bella.

"Hello?"

"Bel-la." She choked out.

"Are you crying?"

"Can you come to the hospital? I need to talk."

"Okay! Okay! I'll skip out of 2nd period. Lord knows I can't stand that psycho teacher!"

Marina sniffed. "Thanks." The line went dead. She really needed a friend right now.

**0oxo0oxo0oxo0oxo0oxo0**

Bella packed up all of her work and stuffed it in her backpack. She already knew the weeks assignments, she could do some of them at the hospital.

"Hey." Said a guys voice.

Bella turned around; and nearly fainted. Her huge crush for the past semester was talking to her. Actually _talking_ to her. "Um, hey Josh!" she said, and kept thinking that the sound of her pounding heart would surely kill the conversation.

"Do you want to walk to second period together?"

"Sure!" exclaimed Bella. And they walked off into 2nd period, completely forgetting about homework, troubles, and yes, best friends who are lying in a hospital with unknown ailments.

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I'm sorry, I know! This is a really short chapter, but I like it because it reflects on Marina's and Bella's friendship. Not that it's a bad one but….. I know I haven't written all week but as I said above, school just started and I was busy and tired and etcetera.

But I swear you'll get another one a lot sooner than this time. Even if it has to be short to get you one. Because I don't want to keep you waiting for more than a week, and this is cutting it very fine. Did I use that right? Oh well, enough of my ranting.

Thanks,

Paige/ILGH

MNA RoX-PUS!


	7. Truth

Hi You!

Disclaimer- I wish I never sold them to Fox…..

Hello people! Just wanted to apologize about my incredibly short chapter!  
Onwards!

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Marina waited. And waited. Then she waited some more. School had been over for at least three hours, so if Bella had chickened out about skipping she still would have been here a while ago. She dwelled on House, and her feelings for him. The dream, that embarrassing dream, and its meanings, but finally she just gave up, and watched doctors and nurses come in and out. They all carefully avoided her gaze.

Cameron, Chase, and Foreman came in. "Your still not showing any new symptoms." Cameron informed her quietly.

"Which could be a bad thing." Foreman added.

"I'm not after House." Marina said quietly.

The team looked up at her in surprise. She just got right to the point, didn't she?

"That wasn't what we were thinking!" cried Cameron. "Not at all!"

"It's pretty obvious your lying, but thanks all the same." Marina hoped they hadn't uncovered_ her_ lie.

The doctors left, just as Amanda and House walked by, looking like they were having an intense conversation. House looked pretty stressed. They stared at the pair strangely.

"What?" he snapped at them.

They scurried off.

"And anyway, she was having a wet dream about three guys, and one of them was me!"

"Omigosh!" gasped Amanda.

"It's horrible, I know. I mean, I'm her own -"

"Shh!" hissed Amanda.

"Oh yeah, I forgot."

"Were going to have to straighten this out. We have to tell her."

"Everything?"

"Yes, I think that's the best way. Shall we do it now?"

"Do I have too?"

"Better yet, you do it by yourself."

"What!"

"You heard me! Go!"

"How come you can always boss me around?" he asked her irritably, as he strode towards Marina's room.

"I've known you too long Greg." she called after him.



Marina was lying on her bed, bored. House came in.

"Marina, I need to tell you something." he said quietly.

"What are you going to do? Make fun of me again for my dreams? Well guess what? We weren't having sex, okay? So if that's what you've come to berate me about you can go crawl back into your hole, because I really can't deal with you right now!" she spat back angrily.

"No, that's actually not what I came here to do. I came here to tell you something that I meant to tell you yesterday. But was distracted by your apparent attraction to me."

"What were you going to tell me?" she narrowed her eyes at him, covering up her piqued curiosity.

"Number 1, sorry but its sick that you like me. Two, it would be illegal if I liked you back in that way. Three, because I'm your father."



THE SECRET IS FINALLY REVEALED! THE VERY OBVIOUS SECRET!

Hello darkness my old friend!

R&R, you know the drill.


	8. Anger, Curiosity, and Jealousy

Disclaimer - disclamations…….

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Last Chapter Ending:

"Three, because I'm your father."

(record player comes to a screeching halt)

Marinas mouth dropped open in surprise, her ears turned red, and she said, "Oh my god. You're joking right?"

"Not this time, I found out yesterday. Your mom told me."

Unfortunately, this was the wrong thing to say, because Marina was now shaking with anger. "She knew? She knew! Why didn't she tell me? Or you? You were denied a daughter for 15 years just like I was denied a father! This is so unfair!" she cried, a few tears were down her cheeks.

"Hey! Don't worry! It's alright!" he sat down on the bed and tried to take a stab at what a dad would do. His first 'real dad' conversation with his daughter and she was angry and crying. That's the way to win father of the year.

"No it's not! We've been lied to! Decieved! All those daddy-daughter dances that I missed, felt so left out on…."

"Well, I wouldn't be able to do much dancing anyways." he gestured at his leg, and Marina gave a watery chuckle.

"Thanks, Dad."

"Your welcome." and they hugged. Meanwhile on the inside House was screaming. _Gah! What do I do? Daddy-daughter dance's? What? I'll be a terrible father, oohhhhhhhhhhhh, I'll destroy her life by accident! Oh shit! I just remembered! There's people I _know_ in this hospital! And the outside walls are glass! Anyone could have seen me hug her! What shall my reputation do now…._

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Foreman, Chase, and Cameron were walking through the hallways aimlessly talking about random things, when Chase stopped in his tracks. "What the hell?"

"What?" inquired the other two.

"Look at House."

"Where?"

"In our patients room."

The other two looked around and spotted House talking to the girl as if trying to comfort her, and the girl was crying.

"What did he do?" asked Cameron incredulously.

They watched in pure horror as they hugged, then House did something even more unbelievable. He WIPED THE TEARS FROM HER EYES! PURE MADNESS! He waved goodbye and walked out the door. Unfortunately he walked right into the path of his lackeys. His cheeks flushed a little but he said, "Gotta refill my Vicodin." and hobbled off.

"My god….House just blushed." Cameron unnecessarily stated.

"Cameron, were not blind."

"Sorry, it's just really unbelievable."

"Why hasn't she burst into flames yet? House wiped away her tears. Something is definitely wrong with him or her or both of them." said Chase.

"And we're prying into our bosses personal life _why_?" Foreman added his two cents.

Chase and Cameron smirked evilly at Foreman, who instantly thought he was doomed.

"Foreman, just play along. You have to be a little curious or else your not human." Chase reminded him.

"Oh fine!" he said reluctantly. "But if we get in trouble I am blaming it on you."

"Funkiller."

"Tattletale."

Foreman rolled his eyes. Sometimes he could swear he was working with children.

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Jake a while ago had heard House say these words: "It's sick but I like you that way too, I wish I was your father." But what he had REALLY said was: "Number 1, sorry but its sick that you like me. Two, it would be illegal if I liked you back in that way. Three, because i'm your father."

But, he impulsively thought he was moving in on 'his girl' and went to eliminate the problem…not hearing the rest of the conversation….

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Sooooooooooooooooooo, how exactly will Jake, 'eliminate' the problem? What shall the ducklings do on their quest of exploitation? And WILL YOU check out my other story? It's called Down Deep, and i'm sure you will love it even more than you love this one!

My friend heard through the fan fiction grapevine that the house stars are coming to Tallahassee. Is this true? Cause if it is then ill be very happy as I LIVE IN FLORIDA! So I shall be asking my parents for a drive up if its true……tell me in a review!

Au Revoir, for now….

Paige!


	9. I Dub Thee Lardass!

So sorry for the wait, lifes been pretty crazy and I got real bad writers block with this story. But last night, I had a vision….not really. But I DID get a hold on this story, so there you go.

Disclaimer - Okay, it's pretty obvious that I DON'T own House, otherwise I wouldn't be WRITING FANFICTIONS!

Onwards!

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Jake slid the heavy burnt metal rod into his pack. He was ready. He would get rid of the competition and Marina would be _his._ He smiled ruefully to himself before stepping onto the street. It was all so simple.

!#$&()!#$&()!#$&()!#$&()+

The previous day Bella had gone home, finished all of her homework(she got reprimanded by her teacher the next day on account of she had wrote _I love Josh_ all over her assignments) and watched TV for a little while. But the whole time she had been doing that, something in the back of her mind had been nagging her, she felt like she had forgotten something, but what? It was annoying! Suddenly the phone rang.

"Hello?" she heard her mom say from the living room. There was a moments silence and then, "Hold on, I'll get her."

Seconds later her mom had padded into her room, covering the phone in her hands. "Bella! There's some _boy_ on the phone."

Think! Think! Think of something believable!_ He's my boyfriend? NO! That's exactly what I _don't _want to tell her! Uhhh…._

believable!don't 

"Uhh…."

"Well?"

Bella's brain went into overdrive now, then it finally clicked. "Oh! I just remembered! I was supposed to call Josh about the history project! He's probably mad because I forgot."

Her mom eyed her and she felt like she was being probed and scanned for lies, a look that only mothers seem to possess. But she must have drawn up nothing from her search, and thrust the phone towards Bella.

While waiting for her mother to leave the room Bella could swear she saw the feelers being sucked back into her moms eyeballs. She gave her one last glance, then swept out of the room, mumbling about teenagers.

The nagging feeling forgotten, Bella chatted with Josh, a dreamy expression on her face.

"Lets keep our relationship a secret, okay?"

"All right. Bye."

"Bye." were the closing words of the conversation.

Bella had gotten dressed, and into bed. She soon fell asleep. She had been having dreams about Josh, when Marina suddenly strolled into the picture and started yelling at him. She ran forward to tell her to lay off, but then she started yelling at her! She woke up from this dream at 3 o'clock in the morning, and her eyes widened in shock and realization. _Marina!_

!#$&()!#$&()!#$$&()!#$&()+

Amanda had been watching the interesting exchange between Greg and her daughter. After he was done talking to his team, she ran up to him. "How'd it go?"

"Good. But…I wouldn't exactly advise going in there right now."

"Why?" she asked, confused.

"Er, just…just don't do it." and he speed-limped off, leaving Amanda to wallow in her curiosity. Which got the better of her, and she found her feet to be walking in the direction of Marina's room, her arms reaching up to open the door. When she walked in, Marina crossed her arms, and glared at her mom. _Uh-oh. This is _not_ good!_

"Hi, honey!" she exclaimed, pretending that she didn't feel like a hole was being bored into her head by her daughters stare-glare.

"Get out."

But Amanda continued on, flustered. "And, oh, your, uh…looking good! Has Bella come to see you? Do they know what you….?" the question died in her throat, her daughter seemingly staring unblinkingly at her.

"Get out, _please_."

"Okay, just tell me what I did wrong." she said flatly, giving up the game.

"Why don't _you_ tell me, mommy dearest?"

"Well, if I knew what the problem was I wouldn't have asked you."

"Okay, mommy dearest, you want to hear the GODDAMN PROBLEM?"her voice rose with every word, and the Team could hear it from the hallway. They inched forward to investigate. "WELL. I NEVER HAD A FATHER, YOU KNOW? AND I FOUND OUT YOU KNEW ALL ALONG WHO HE IS, WHERE HE LIVES, WHERE HE WORKS, HIS CONTACT INFO…THE LIST COULD GO ON AND ON! AND YOU ASK ME WHATS WRONG! HOW COULD YOU _DO_ THIS?"a few tears ran down her cheeks.

"I-I let me explain."

"NO! I'M DONE LISTENING TO YOUR EXCUSES! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE I'M MOVING IN WITH HIM! AND NOTHING YOU CAN DO WILL STOP ME! GET OUT NOW!" she hollered, then added as an afterthought, "Bitch!"

Her mother backed slowly away from the room, close to tears herself. The last thing she saw was Marina throwing herself onto her pillow, sobbing, before a nurse ushered her out of the room, muttering under her breath about "disturbing the patient"

The whole hall was silent, and then House limped in. "I heard shouting." then he spotted the tearful Amanda. Every pair of eyes watched him and her. "I _told_ you not to go in there." he said pointedly. She nodded, biting her lip. "OKAY! CLEAR OUT PEOPLE! NOTHING TO SEE!" he yelled. He started waving doctor's coats around, directing people towards hallways, doing very humorous imitations of a traffic director. Eventually, it was back to normal, but House was still directing people.

"YOU! TUBBY IN A PINK SHIRT!"he yelled. An old woman came up to him.

"Yes?" she asked icily.

"Move down the left hall, it's wider, in this hall you are blocking traffic." he said, with a face of seriousness.

"But I need to go to the -"

"NO!" he started brandishing the coats at her until she started slowly shuffling towards the left hall.

The _click clack_ of heels were to be heard ways away. _Clickkity-clack, clikkity-clack, clickkity-clackkity, clickkity-clackkity…_ They grew louder and faster.

"CUDDY'S COMING! RUN FOR YOUR LIFES!" he screamed. The patients, not knowing any better, ran away down the halls, screaming, while the doctors and nurses rolled their eyes.

She appeared in the hallway. "Grr…HOUSE!" she came to stand in front of him. He gave a little yelp, and pulled everything out of the pockets of the lab coat. He threw one of them on top of her, and speed-limped away, pelting her with pens and staplers and in one case a burrito, which to his delight exploded on her face. With a strangled scream of rage, she tore off towards the bathroom to fix her face. He was saved.

The whole hallway started clapping. And a grinning House bowed and started 'knighting' people with his cane. More like hitting people on the back and saying "I dub thee lardass!" and so on.

Marina, listening from her room, smiled. She had the bestest dad…..her lids closed.

!#$&()-!#$&()-!#$&()-!#$&()-+

The ducklings watched the scene from the edge of the wall, clutching their sides. They had each video taped the whole thing on their cells. It was a happy, happy day!

But not for long.

!#$&()-!#$&()-!#$&()-!#$&()-+

Jake drove along the road, he could see the hospital looming in the distance. He parked and walked in, silently as a shadow. No one seemed to notice that his heart was trying to burst through his chest in anticipation of what he was about to do.

He calmly walked into the Diagnostics Department and checked for him there. Nope, no one. He walked towards Marina's room to find her sleeping, and House bustling around checking her vitals and so on.

He opened the door quietly, silently. House didn't notice him. Carefully as to not make a sound, he pulled out the scorched, rusty old crowbar he had found in a dumpster. He hadn't bothered washing it.

Just as he raised the bar, ready to strike, House turned around. His eyes widened but he didn't have time to think, he was smashed in the forehead. Seconds later, he passed out. Blood was gushing everywhere. Jake left, satisfied with the job, and calmly walked out of the hospital.

_Marina will be mine yet!_ he thought, as he saw her blearily open her eyes into slits. He was already in the parking lot when he heard a strangled scream coming from inside. He smirked, and drove home, wiping the blood off his hands as he went

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Okay, sorry for the wait, but this is a fairly long chapter, right? I think. I hope. Oh well, how did you like it? Haha! I was laughing out loud when I wrote the part about the burrito exploding on her face! Tee-hee! I'm evil! I know! Brouhaha! I mean, Mwahaha! That's better. Sorry again for the long wait, but in the mean time while your waiting for the next chappie, why don't you access my profile and check out my other story? R&R!

Thanks!

Paige ILGH

"Don't worry, I'm not going to burn you again...I'm going to STAB YOU!" hahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Just kidding. :)


	10. Symptoms Progress

Hey! Sorry for the wait, but just to clear things up a bit, we are on, I think the third day. In the morning. Just to clear that up. The morning of the third day. Okay! Sorry for the wait but I had a dangerous disease. It's called Writers Block. I'm very prone to this disease. So, sorry for the lack of updates. All you guys are appreciated. Thanks!

O! And my disclaimer. I DO NOT OWN HOUSE. SO PLEASE STOP BRINGING IT UP. I'M HURT ENOUGH AS IT IS! YOU DON'T HAVE TO RUB IT IN THAT I DON'T OWN IT! (sob)

Onwards!

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Marina saw House on the floor. She screamed. She frantically pressed the nurse button over and over again, still yelling "HELP!" as loud as she could. She was just about to bandage him up herself when his team burst into the room. Then they screamed.

"What took so long? Stop screaming and help him! Please! I can't lose him!" she accidentally spilled a bit more than she should have, but she didn't care, she needed him to live; she had just found him after all.

They paged for a gurney and started applying pressure to his head wound, waiting.

"There's traces of rust here, think of the diseases he'll get from that! Oh…they better hurry!" Cameron cried frantically in a squeaky voice.

The gurneys came, and he was rushed to the emergency room.

Wilson came in and enveloped Marina in a hug. "Don't worry, I, well, I know. He'll be okay!"

He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"Where is he?"

"He should be getting surgery, then they will scan his head, check his leg, since he fell on that, and then he'll be fine and dandy and ready to go back to his _job_." he put the emphasis on the last word, hoping that Marina would understand. She gave him a slight nod.

The ducklings noted this, but didn't say anything.

Marina winced suddenly. After the few hours she had had after her sleep on the third day, she was showing her symptoms again. She could feel herself growing cold and clammy as her body temperature rose in a fever.

She lifted her hand to her forehead dizzily. She was becoming disoriented. Where was she? Why was she here? What's up with the bright lights?

She felt sick. Her muscles were aching, she felt like she was dying. Why was it so cold? She vomited all over herself, crying. "I'm dying, I'm dying!"

Wilson and the Ducklings rushed forward to help her. "What's wrong with her?" cried Wilson. He pulled out his penlight, Foreman was taking her temperature, Cameron was checking her stats, while Chase was trying to keep her here, saying things like, "Can you tell me your name?" and things like that.

She stopped vomiting and dry-heaved. After she settled down, she curled up in he fetal position, groaning. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

"What's happening to me?" she whispered to herself.

The doctors looked at each other uneasily. They had no idea.

House could feel himself slipping. His vision was blurred, his head hurt.

Where am I? What's happened? Why am I laying down? My head hurts. I mean, it hurts a lot dammit! Why can't I see? Symptom of: getting hit on the head with a rusty crowbar. Oh yeah. That thing. Damn you, Jake! I see blurry figures. Oh god! No! Surgeon! Damn! Surgery! Hey! I should have a say in this!

He tried to speak. He couldn't. His eyes widened frantically, and he lifted his hands and gestured to his throat.

"Don't worry, House. You'll be back annoying us in no time. Now, were going to have to give you some sedatives, get you calmed down."

He finally managed to rasp out "no!"

"Excuse me?"

But the sedatives were kicking in.

No! Dammit! Listen to me you bastard! LISTEN TO ME! Can't you see? I want to know WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON! "WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO ME?" he screamed the last thought, just before he was rendered unconscious.

The surgeons looked at each other uneasily. "Well, lets go."

House stood on top of his surgeons head. The surgeon didn't seem to mind. They were removing a thin slice of metal that had been left in his head. He hoped they weren't messing him up to badly. He turned away in disgust. He couldn't watch his head being sliced open.

"Squee!" he bounced from one surgeons head to another.

He wondered why he was out of his body.

Oh well. The mysteries of life.

He got bored jumping on his surgeons head. But he couldn't resist running out. He could walk! And run! And jump! Squee!

He moon-bounced over to Cuddy's office. She was changing her top. House sat down in a chair and contentedly watched her.

Wilson burst in, ruining the show.

"Cuddy!" he panted, as if he had just run all the way there. Which, coincidentally, he had. "House! He was hit in the forehead with a rusty crowbar!"

"What!"

"Yes! And his patient is vomiting and fevering up and sobbing all over the place."

"Oh lord….And House's condition?"

"Stable. For now. They're afraid he might slip into a coma."

She clasped her hands over her mouth. "No! He can't leave us! Oh….This place would be so boring without him!"

House smirked. But he'd heard enough. He toured the hospital and slipped into his daughters room.

She was shaking and tears were rolling down her cheeks. She was flushed from a high fever.

Suddenly, she wet the bed. She just took one look and started crying again. She hadn't even had the strength to ask to go to the bathroom. But there was a catch; her urine was bloody.

"Bloody urine?" Chase said, dumbfounded.

"No Chase, it's fruit punch." said Cameron sarcastically. "Now, instead of repeating everything we see wrong with the patient, why don't we try to _fix_ it?"

He gave a curt nod, and they all tried to help her.

Foreman took out his handy-dandy penlight and shined it in her eyes. "Her liver's failing!" he shouted.

"What?"

"Jaundice. Her liver is failing."

Bella told the school she was sick, and ran to the hospital. When she got in she got right to her friends room, but stopped. What she saw horrified her. Marina a sickly yellow color and trembling. She had vomit all over her, and tears were streaming down her face.

Bella backed up. She felt like she was going to spew her breakfast.

I don't belong here, she told herself. But she's my friend, I need to be there for her.

Oh? questioned a little sinister voice inside her head. _So what were you yesterday? An enemy? Look at her. Go on, look. You refused to help your best friend because you wanted to flirt with your crush? Who's just using you? Your pathetic._

questioned a little sinister voice inside her head. 

I am not pathetic! And he's not using me! She argued.

Sure. You tell yourself that. It's still not going to make it any better when that little plane called Denial crash-lands in a pile of shit.

Shut up! Just shut up! You don't know what your talking about!

Don't I? You wouldn't be hearing me if some part of you're brain is on my side.

I'm not going to choose sides.

Yeah, yeah. I already knew you'd be too scared. You should be ashamed of yourself. You ditch your best friend while she's in the hospital and then refuse to visit her? Just staring out the door?

No. She's dying. And you know it.

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Hey! How'd you like? Me-likey! You-likey? Lets hope so! crosses fingers

Thanx for reading. Plz, plz PLZ review! Reviews are really good medicine for my disease called Writers Block!

Taste-tester for the next chappie: Bella gets some courage. Marina gets a diagnoses. So does her mother. House is worse for wear. & Josh heartbreaker.

Thanks!

Please R&R.

Yeah. Listen to that annoying little voice that's always right. For once. Just this one time.

Yes! Thank you! Finally some respect!

ILGH


	11. Dreaming of Memories

Hi You!

Hello again _amis et amies_! _Bonjour, Bonsois_, or _Bonnuit! _Sorry. I'm feeling French right now.

Anyways, here goes the.…no. UM…Here starts the…damn, no…that doesn't sound right either! Okay. Now the chapter is --- God Dammit! Oh.…I don't give a noodle!

Oh, and there is an excerpt from chapter 9 in here.

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN! NO SUE! NO SUE!

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The out-of-spirit House wandered down to the clinic lost in thought….yellow coloration of the eyes and skin…vomiting…muscle pain….recently was stuck in the rainforest without protection….fever….

Suddenly House put two and two together. Yellow coloration + rainforest (a.k.a. mosquito haven) + fever… Yellow Fever! His daughter had Yellow Fever!!!!!

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There was a normal looking teenager standing in the middle of the clinic, dragged along by her mother who thought she was crazy.

She looked up and saw a man making faces right in front of another person. He was flicking them off and was about a fleas whisker apart from innocent peoples faces.

See…THIS was why her mother thought she was crazy! But she really could see spirits!!! She walked over to the man with the cane who was now openly staring down a woman's shirt.

"I have the strangest feeling I'm being watched…" the woman muttered to herself uneasily and put on her coat. She looked up at the psychic and glared at her.

"What?! It's not me! It's him!" she said, pointing to what looked like an empty space of air which was where a smirking House was currently standing. But he did look slightly alarmed that she could see him though. So he decided to ask her about it.

"So…you can see me?"

"Yes. Are you dead?" she asked out of the corner of her mouth, the lady gave her a strange look and scurried away.

"No. Me? Dead? Pshaw! I'm currently having surgery and they are removing piece of metal from my head."

"Ouch. How'd you get metal in your head?"

"Got on the wrong side of someone…Anywho….my daughters stalker thought I was a serious threat, and…bashed my head in."

"Gosh, he sounds stupid."

"Yeah, he is. Anyway, I have a favor to ask you."

"Oh, _please_ don't get all Ghost Whisperer on me!!!!"

"Not sorry to disappoint, but I am. Go to floor four."

"Yes, master."

"And don't you forget it."

They climbed onto an elevator and went to floor four. They saw Foreman, Cameron, and Chase talking worriedly.

The girl (her name is Paige just so you know, and she has brown hair, brown eyes, and she's pretty crazy yet funny and a good person to hang out with) burst into the conference room.

"You don't have a gun do you? Cause House is in surgery." drawled Cameron.

To the underlings, it looked like she was talking to the wall. "Your name is House? What the hell kind of name is that?"

"Well, it's my name!" House replied indignantly.

"Whatever…Anyways….I've been asked to pass a message along from House."

"You…do know he's in surgery right?" asked Chase.

"Yes! He told me! Anyways, he says that his dau- Marina has Yellow Fever."

"Um…and you _do_ know that the Psych Ward is on the second floor, right?" asked Cameron, though she was intrigued at how she knew about Marina. All of them were skeptical that she could see and talk to House while he was in surgery. "We'll ask you three questions about House…if he 'tells' you the correct answer then we'll take you seriously. Okay…number one: Why does he have to use a cane?"

Paige looked at House. He smirked at her. "Do you want me to tell you?"

She raised an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

"Ahh…right. What will you give me if I tell you?"

"Umm…a muffin?" she tried desperately.

To the underlings, it looked like she was talking to thin air. "A muffin? The reason he walks with a cane is because of a muffin?!?"

"No!" Paige cried desperately. But she knew all hope was lost. Yup, they thought she was crazy.

"Right…I'm calling security." muttered Chase.

"No!" she repeated, because House had just told her the info very slowly and it was ANNOYING! "He had an infarction in his right thigh and he suffers from chronic pain because his ex and…someone named Cuddy went against his wishes and did a surgery that removed his dead muscle."

They looked at each other. "Okay…next question. Who is House's best friend?"

After several minutes of watching Paige talk to nothing, the underlings heard her say "His best friends are Kimmy…no…_Jimmy_, and Vicodin. He says his best friends are Jimmy and Vicodin."

"And the final question: What, according to him, snags chicks better than a puppy?"

Paige snorted, he'd already told her that. "His cane."

"Okay! I'm freaked out but I'll believe you!!! Okay, what's the message?"

"He says: His daughter has Yellow Fever….Crap. I wasn't supposed to say that? Okay. _Marina_ has Yellow Fever." she was sniggering at the expression on House's face.

The ducklings sat up straighter. "A DAUGHTER?!?!?!" they all screamed. "Wait…and she has Yellow Fever?!?! It all makes sense! The visiting, the hugging, the protectiveness, the symptoms…Okay, wow. Lets go give her bed rest and just _wow. _Yes! We don't have to do any snooping!"

Paige laughed openly. "Great meeting you House. Anything else, just come to me. My mom thinks I need to go to the Psych Ward. So I'll probably be there." She waved and walked out.

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Amanda wasn't feeling well.

Over the past year she had been having some problems. This is what they were: trouble sleeping, fatigue, frequent bowel movements, irritability, weight loss without dieting, heat sensitivity, increased sweating, muscular weakness, lighter menstrual flow, rapid heart beat, and hand tremors. Now it was all catching up to her.

She was outside her daughters room when she fell asleep. She dreamed wonderful dreams, she dreamed memories._Dream/Memories/Flashback:_

_It was 1966 and she was 7 years old, standing on her front porch and watching her now neighbors move in. A little boy who looked about the same age bounded up to her. "Hi, my name's Greg. Is there anything interesting to do around here?"_

_"Hi, my name's Amanda. I'll show you around." she smiled and led him off._

_------------------------_

_She was 12 years old, and her best friend was by her side. Gregory House . A smile on his face with his legs stretched out. She felt total bliss._

_"Hey, Manda." Greg said. "Wanna race?"_

_"What's the point? You'll just beat me." she laughed._

_"I know. That _is_ the point." he smirked. _

_"Oh fine!" she said huffily, but they both knew she was enjoying herself._

_"1, 2, 3, GO!"_

_The two ran across the field, Greg, of course, winning. She collapsed on the ground next to him, panting and laughing._

_"Hey, Manda. Look!" There was a tiny calico kitten mooning around._

_"Oh! I hope it's not abandoned or anything!"_

_"Look! It's cut!" Greg stripped off a piece of shirt and wrapped the kitten's leg in it, applying pressure._

_"Wow, Greg. You should be a doctor when you grow up."_

_Greg snorted. "Yeah right! As if I'll ever be a doctor! No, I wanna be…..something where I can learn things everyday. Ya know?"_

_"Maybe. Anyways, about the cat…what do we want to do with it? Keep it, leave it? Beg and plead with our moms?"_

_"Well, you should plead with your mom. My mom's allergic to cats. And dogs. And peanuts. And -"_

_"Okay! I don't wanna hear everything your mom is allergic to!"_

_"Ha ha! Okay. You should keep the cat and I'll just be it's….Uncle."_

_"Whatever, That would mean you would be my brother if I'm the mom."_

_"Well maybe I'm it's the dad's brother. And the dad split on the cat so the helpful Uncle steps in to graciously help his sister-in-law. That could be it."_

_"Well, yeah, but let's not do that. I want you to be my brother anyway. It might be pretend, but you're my best friend, and are as good as my brother, ya know? Just…different homes, parents, genes…"_

_Greg smiled. "And you my sister. So…you say the reason why were not brother and sister is because of different homes, parents, and genes? Wow! You should be a detective or something….We must go! Quick! Bulldoze our homes and build one big one! Be quick and get our parents to elope or something! And let's get to the hospital right now! Maybe then I can give you my blood or something. So if we did all of that then you would say we were brother and sister?"_

_"Oh…Stop being so smart." she giggled. "But…maybe it's better that way. Maybe if you really were my brother then we probably wouldn't be friends, ya know? Anyways, I love you. Like a brother. Like a friend."_

_"Same here. Now…let's stash the cat in your basement and see how long it takes for someone to discover it."_

_"Sure, let's go."_

_---------------------_

_Amanda was 14 years old. With Greg by her side. They were both standing, both being interrogated by their parents. Apparently, Amanda's dad was allergic to cats._

_"What were you thinking?" cried her mother._

_"She wasn't." cut in Greg's dad. "This was Greg's doing. You are such a trouble-maker!"_

_Greg kept his face clear, but Manda had that guilty look on her face. Her mother picked up the argument._

_"Your father has had lung problems for two years! The doctors said it was allergies! He had to get so many shots for testing! We found out he was allergic to cats well that was nothing new! How could you do this?!"_

_"Look! I'm sorry! I didn't know!"_

_"You come here young lady!" yelled her father, pulling her towards him._

_"STOP!" yelled Greg. "She didn't do anything! It was all me! Stop pulling her arm, man!"_

_Her father let go of Amanda who ran over to Greg. He picked up her arm and inspected it. "It's fine." he told her._

_She nodded numbly._

_"Well I don't want my daughter hanging around with some ruffian. They probably make-out behind the bleachers or something."_

_Greg and Amanda gave each other horrified looks. "Hey! We're just friends!"_

_"Kids these days. Back in my day -" started John._

_"Back in your day everything was one cent! But this isn't your day! It's 1973! Not the 1800's!" Greg interrupted in anger._

_"You watch your smart-mouth boy." warned John._

_"John, I don't want my daughter hanging out with that hooligan you call a son."_

_Greg and Amanda looked at each other fearfully. They inched closer together as the parents argued for comfort. "Don't worry, if the worst happens I can always sneak around." he whispered to her. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that." she muttered back._

_"Nor do I. The miserable they are, the more likely they'll follow orders. So I don't want your daughter hanging around my son."_

_"I don't want your son hanging out with my daughter."_

_"No!" yelled Greg and Amanda simultaneously. "Were brothers and sisters! You wouldn't separate siblings would you?"_

_"You two are just kids!!!"_

_"The only thing that separates us is our parents, our homes, and our genes!" said Greg, making Amanda smile._

_"Yes. The thing that separates you. Exactly." said Amanda's father coldly. _

_"I hate you!" she screamed, and ran up the stairs, but she stopped at the top to survey what would be going on in her absence._

_"You bastards. Look what you've done to her. Well, at least you'll have to deal with the horrible, horrible consequences!" said Greg angrily._

_"Oh? Which are?"_

_"You'll see."_

_He looked up at Amanda on the stairs and gave her a soldier salute. She gave a watery laugh and gave one back. It was their signal for 'everything may suck now, but it least it probably wont last'. It was what they gave the other one when they were in a bad situation. Like when Greg had to move to Egypt that one year. He came back, but it still sucked._

_"I'll be back!" he yelled. "This isn't the last you're going to hear of Gregory House!"_

_--------------------------_

_Amanda was 19 years old. With Greg by her side._

_"Oh…I'm going to miss you so much! And wow! I can't believe your going to medical school, that's awesome. I can't even believe I'm going to college. It just seems like so long ago we were stashing cats in my basement or annoying Ms. What's-her-face."_

_"Ahh. Your memory is as good as always, Manda."_

_"Well do you remember her name?" _

_"Ahhh….No."_

_"See?"_

_"Yes, I can see. Your right in front of me, and were both trying to hail a taxi on the side of the road. And…your crying."_

_"I'm sorry! I just can't help it! I'm going to miss you so much…It'll be like that time when our parents forbid us to see each other and you snuck in anyway. Except worse. Because security's too tight for you to sneak in and you'll be too far away…" she choked back a sob._

_They embraced, she breathed into his chest, got his jacket wet with tears. "I'll just miss you so much, and now I want that taxi to drive very, very slowly. And you need to keep in touch. Over e-mail. And you need to send pictures! And tell me everything!" she cried._

_"Of course I will. And you can for me."_

_"Of course."_

_She kissed him on the cheek; the taxi pulled up, and Amanda got in. Still crying._

_"Think fast!" Greg yelled, and threw her a box. "Open it when you get to the campus." he yelled after the taxi._

_She watched through the back window of the car and saw Greg salute. She gave a watery smile. Everything sucked, but it probably wouldn't last awhile._

_-------------------------_

_Amanda made it to the campus, and opened the box in her dorm. "Oh Greg…" she breathed when she saw it. It was a photo album with shots dating back to when the were 7. He put some of them in a strip, and he humorously captioned them. There were even a few of Ms. What's-her-face, her captions read silly things like "Get out of my weeds!" or "I'll hit you with my purse!" because she actually had hit Greg with her purse before. And it was filled with cat food. But mostly they were pictures depicting their friendship. Amanda would treasure it forever. _

_-------------------------_

_Amanda was 33, with Greg by her side. She had just made the biggest mistake of her life. She had gotten drunk and slept with her best friend. "Oh…shit! What do I do?" She gathered her things and fled, but before she left, she kissed his cheek. "I love you." she whispered through her tears. She gulped a few times and fled through the door._

_--------------------------_

_Nine months later Amanda was in California. Giving birth to her baby girl. She named her Marina…_

_--------------------------_

_Amanda was 43 and she had snuck into the PPTH. She was horrified at this Greg. Who went by House. House was mean. Greg was caring._

_She saw him get betrayed by his lover, she watched him in terrible pain. She saw him fight for his leg. She longed to go to him, but her ten year old daughter needed her. So she had to walk back to the clinic and watch the doctor inspect a burned finger._

_"That's what happens when you stick your finger in the candle…"_

_--------------------------_

_She came home from work, 47 years old. And couldn't find her daughter anywhere. She called the police, but in a few days there was a phone call from the police saying that Marina had called Bella about her whereabouts, not her own mother…And she had felt so hurt…_

_--------------------------_

_A few days later her daughter was in the hospital…_

_--------------------------_

_Greg forgave her. Even though he had turned bitter and mean, didn't trust anyone, insecure, afraid of being hurt again…_

_--------------------------_

_Amanda was visiting her daughter after Greg had told her that he was her father._

_"Hi, honey!" she exclaimed, pretending that she didn't feel like a hole was being bored into her head by her daughters stare-glare._

_"Get out."_

_But Amanda continued on, flustered. "And, oh, your, uh…looking good! Has Bella come to see you? Do they know what you….?" the question died in her throat, her daughter seemingly staring unblinkingly at her._

_"Get out, please."_

_"Okay, just tell me what I did wrong." she said flatly, giving up the game._

_"Why don't you tell me, mommy dearest?"_

_"Well, if I knew what the problem was I wouldn't have asked you."_

_"Okay, mommy dearest, you want to hear the GODDAMN PROBLEM?" her voice rose with every word, and the Team could hear it from the hallway. They inched forward to investigate. "WELL. I NEVER HAD A FATHER, YOU KNOW? AND I FOUND OUT YOU KNEW ALL ALONG WHO HE IS, WHERE HE LIVES, WHERE HE WORKS, HIS CONTACT INFO…THE LIST COULD GO ON AND ON! AND YOU ASK ME WHATS WRONG! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?" a few tears ran down her cheeks._

_"I-I let me explain."_

_"NO! I'M DONE LISTENING TO YOUR EXCUSES! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE I'M MOVING IN WITH HIM! AND NOTHING YOU CAN DO WILL STOP ME! GET OUT NOW!" she hollered, then added as an afterthought, "Bitch!"_

_Her mother backed slowly away from the room, close to tears herself. The last thing she saw was Marina throwing herself onto her pillow, sobbing, before a nurse ushered her out of the room, muttering under her breath about "disturbing the patient"._

_----------------------------_

Her dream stopped playing, and she spent a good time reflecting on her life. Amanda got up, and walked down the hallway. It was only then that she realized she had left her body behind. She gasped. "No!"

She was dead.

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Wow! Flashbacks are fun! REVIEW PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!

I won't post until I get 7 reviews. So there. Ha! Okay...So you know the taste-tester last chapter? Um...Well, it didn't really fit with the chapter. But you will get those things...someday... :)/\/\/\/\/\/\/ ( look at my springman! )

Thanks,

ILGH


	12. What Happened?

Hi You!

Yay! Another update! Can you PLEASE review if you read this? For the last chapter I have 15 people on alerts and when I posted the last chapter I only got 5 reviews, and one of them was a FLAME so it didn't count. Now, I know I'm not a genius, but I _do_ think that if you have 15 alerts then you should have 15 reviews? So please people, GIVE ME A REVIEW! I KNOW I'M GREEDY BUT THE MORE REVIEWS I GET THE BETTER I'LL WRITE! WHOO! Cookies go out to the people who reviewed.

Disclaimer: Yeah, _I_ own House. Sue me.

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House was talking to Paige. He was so bored that he had to talk to a 13 year old girl. That's just sad. But she seemed to be having a good time, keeping up her end of the conversation, laughing at his jokes, making her own. Suddenly House felt himself being pulled. "What's happening?" he muttered.

"Oh, you must be waking up from your surgery. See ya later!" she waved, and suddenly House shot like a bullet towards his own body. Everything went dark for a second, and when he opened his eyes, he was lying on a table, not standing talking to a girl.

"WTF?" he muttered. "Where am I?"

He could hear voices that sounded far away. "He's awake!"

"House, just rest."

He opened his eyes, and saw a bunch of doctors surrounding him. He shook his head for a second to clear his thoughts. He started to recognize them one by one. "Chase?"

The blonde doctor nodded.

"Cameron, Wilson, Cuddy?"

They all smiled.

"Where's Foreman?"

"Checking on the patient." said Cameron, just in case he had forgotten that they knew she was his daughter.

"Oh. Did you get the diagnoses? She has Yellow Fever."

"Yeah, we did the blood test. How did you figure it out?"

He sat up a little straighter. "She was taken to the rainforest, without protection from the mosquitoes there, including the _Aedes Aegypti_, which is most responsible for spreading the virus. If you notice, she had yellow coloration of the skin and eyes, where Yellow Fever gets it's name. We thought she was vaccinated, but apparently her friend either wants to kill her or is an idiot."

"What do you mean?" asked Chase.

"We asked if she was vaccinated and the friend said 'yes'. But Foreman should be paging you guys sometime soon, though."

"Why?"

"After a brief recovery period, such as now, the infection can lead to shock, bleeding, and kidney and liver failure. There is no specific treatment for the virus, but just give her plenty of rest and fluids, and make sure she doesn't get bit by another mosquito for the safety of others. She should get better after a long recovery period."

Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep.

Cameron and Chase's pagers went off, from Foreman, saying that the patient had shock, bleeding, kidney failure, and liver failure. They looked at House and then scurried off.

Wilson and Cuddy knelt by his bed. "Why didn't you tell me?" Wilson asked.

"Tell you what?" House asked, confused.

"That the patient was your kid!" Wilson grinned.

"Oh, yeah, _that._"

"You talk about it like it's a bad thing."

"Yeah, it is! For my reputation! So how's Amanda taking all this?"

Cuddy and Wilson gave each other pointed looks that clearly said I'm-not-telling-him-you-are. "Um…"

"What is it?What happened?" House asked.

-------------------------------

FINE! I'LL UPDATE SOONER THAN LATER!

Review, pleasums.

So, will House or Marina or Bella have his/her innocence crushed in the next chappie? And what about Jake? Well, maybe if you give me a review then you'll know faster. Oh, and sorry for the short chappie.

Thy spiriteth is restless in the worldeth of fiction, andeth shall updateth with the speedeth to matcheth something fast. Eth.

Thankseth.

ILGH


	13. Breaking the News

Hi You!

Supposed to be a tear-jerker.

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Really sappy chapter. Oh well, READ PLEASE!

I finished this like a week ago but FF wouldn't let me upload my documents. Sorry!

Onwards!

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Cuddy swiftly left the room, leaving Wilson alone with House. Wilson looked at him sadly, then away, then took in a deep breath and let it out very slowly.

All of these actions House recognized. Wilson did them when he was preparing himself to give bad news to someone. He felt his temperature drop and felt clammy. That was what happened when he was nervous.

"I know you two were close…and she was a really great person and I thought she was great too…" Wilson started.

House's stomach constricted. You two _were_ close. She _was_ a great person. Wilson _thought _that she_ was_ great.

"And…House, she passed away while you were in surgery."

House looked down, and was ashamed to feel a hot wave of emotion wash over him, knowing that his fears had just been confirmed.

"The autopsy shows that she had Grave's Disease. It had been going on untreated and that was the cause of her death. House, I'm -"

"Sorry." said House speaking for the first time, finishing Wilson's sentence. "I know."

Wilson's face crumpled, and he couldn't even imagine how House was feeling. He had become friends with Amanda _after_ he had become friends with House, while House and Amanda had been best friends since the age of seven. Wilson shuddered at having to lose someone that close. "Um, House? She had a bag with her…and I think you should look inside of it." He handed House Amanda's large backpack, and stepped outside the room.

House opened it up and found one thing: a photo album. The very same photo album he had given her over 25 years ago. The paper was yellowed and the edges were frayed and ripped; he figured that in the 15 years she had been missing she must have felt so guilty and looked at the only memories she had left.

He felt a tear slide down his face. Only two days ago he had just gotten to see her again after 15 years…and now _this._ He let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "_Why_ me? _Why _am _I_ always the one to get screwed over? To get punished? WHAT DID I DO?" he yelled to himself.

House breathed heavily, his heart racing. He felt so helpless. It was GRAVE'S DISEASE for gods sake! He was supposed to be so observant! Why didn't he notice the shaking hands? That would have been the easiest!!! It was his fault that she never got any treatment…his entire fault…

He buried his face into his hands and felt the tears come hot and fast. He felt embarrassed that he was crying when there were glass walls…anyone could see him. But at this point; he didn't care about anything. He felt like he was in a daze, a void between real life and nothingness.

He heard the door open and made no effort to take his face out of his hands.

"House, I'm sorry for you're loss. You probably don't want to listen to anyone right now, except for the woman you lost…so I brought her." said a young voice.

He looked up; and saw Paige standing there. "Amanda has something she wants to say to you."

He wordlessly nodded his head for her to continue.

"She…wants to say…" she stopped for a second, and wiped her eyes on her hands. "She says that not a single day of her life went by until she was seven that she did not wish for a friend. And she says that not a single day of her life went by _after_ she met you that she didn't think about you. She says that you were the best thing that ever happened to her besides Marina. That every day that you were in some foreign country she dreamed that you came back. That after you gave her the book she looked in it every day; when she was happy, before she went to bed, when she cried, and especially when she missed you.

"She says that in chronological order the first best day of her life was meeting you. The second was giving birth to Marina. And third was the relief that you had forgiven her.

"She wants you to take care of Marina. She says to tell her that she loves her and that she is so, so sorry for not telling her about you until now, and she's saying that she has to go. She says goodbye, and she loves you. She says that everything sucks, but it probably won't last awhile. And…she's gone."

Paige put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Thank you." he said quietly. Paige nodded and walked out.

House lay back down and continued crying his eyes out. She was gone. She was really _gone_. And he missed her too much…

God! Why did she have to die on him like that? Why would she do that to him? Why did she have to make him cry, make him miss her so much, miss her so much he felt like he would explode…miss her so much he felt like something had died inside of him.

And he knew it was true.

----------------------------------------------------

Cuddy and Cameron had tears rolling down their cheeks as they watched House do the exact same thing. Chase and Foreman both had screwed up expressions; like they were trying not to get too emotional. But when a rock starts crying then you know something serious is up.

All they knew was what they had seen; except for Cuddy. But she wasn't going to tell the ducklings a thing, House would tell them himself. But all the ducklings had saw was Wilson act very peculiar, tell House something, and House's face had gotten that expression on his face, the one that clearly said holy-crap-this-is-the-worst-moment-of-my-life-but-I-don't-necessarily- know-it-yet-because-I'm-blinded-by-shock-and-anger. That kind of face. Then they heard House yelling, and him looking at a book, crying. But he cried differently. He cried completely silent, his body didn't heave or anything, and the only way you could tell was if you could actually see the tears.

Cameron decided to go in; but Cuddy held her back and shook her head 'no'. Cameron nodded sadly.

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Bella cautiously approached Marina's room. She opened the door and sat down by her bed. "Marina, I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"Sorry for what? Don't you remember?"

"Yes. Yes I do. I just want to make sure _you _do."

"I didn't come when you were in a lot of trouble because Josh had asked me out."

Marina choked. "I had thought you had just forgotten, but this is even worse! Not only did you forget, but you ditched me for some BOY! Urgh! I can't believe you! Why don't you just forget we were ever friends."

"No…I need to tell you something."

"Tic-tock, the clock's running."

And Bella began to re-hash the events of that day at school.

She had done all of Josh's homework including her own. He had told her that that was what girlfriends were supposed to do for boyfriends. She had refused.

"But aren't we together now?"

"Fine. I'll do it."

The homework included a research paper too. Urgh. She had all of his work stacked in a nice neat pile and precariously walked over to his locker, his homework blocking her vision.

"Hi." he said, and took the work without a word of thanks. He flipped through to make sure it was all there.

Suddenly the most popular girl of the school came up, cute, cool, and bleach-blonde, she strode up to him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and they started to make-out in front of everyone.

"What's that like, geek doing like, talking to you?" she had asked him loudly, pointing at Bella.

"She's my slave. She did alllll of my assignments this week. Oh! I need to properly introduce you two! Slave, meet my girlfriend! Girlfriend, meet Slave."

Bella had felt her eyes well up with tears as he talked and kids laughed. "B-but…you just asked me out! We were a couple!!!"

"Ahh…such a kid with her little hopes and dreams." he said. Then he yelled into the crowd, "Come on! Do you really think that if I ever dated her you wouldn't know about it?"

A murmur of agreement ran through the crowd.

Bella grabbed the homework that she had done for him and stomped on it, then she picked it up and ripped it to shreds throwing it in the trashcan. She ran down the hallway crying until the principle caught up with her.

"NO RUNNING IN THE HALLS! Wait! You're crying! I can imagine someone in your spot would be."

"W-why?" she choked out.

"Well there was a complaint filed that you ruined Josh Paloni's homework. And a two-week project! What kind of behavior is this! First you skip…then you ruin fellow peer's work. We're going to have to put you on suspension."

"But…Wait! It wasn't his work! I did it for him! And then he made me really angry so I ripped it up! It was not his!!" Bella cried desperately.

"SO YOU WERE CHEATING?!?!?" the principle's eyes were practically bulging out of his sockets.

"No!!"

"What you did qualifies as cheating."

"So Josh doesn't get in trouble?"

"He's done a miraculous turn around. All his F's have turned to A's. So no. But you're getting a referral AND a detention. And that's that."

"But -" Bella started to protest again. All of his F's turned to A's BECAUSE of her!

"No buts."

Marina chuckled, a huge smile on her face. "You idiot, that's what you get! Well…I _suppose _I can forgive you for making sure the doctors diagnosed me later rather than earlier and for completely ignoring me while I was in the hospital….what do you think?"

"I'm sorry, I _really_ didn't mean to, I feel so bad…"

"Oh GOD! FEELINGS! Please! I'm not your therapist!"

Bella smiled, knowing everything was alright.

"Hey, have you seen my mom?"

"No, why?"

"Well, I haven't seen her in a while, and she usually comes in at 3 and it's 4 now. I'm getting a little worried…"

"It'll probably be fine."

"Yeah…"

They heard the door open, and they looked up to see House towering over them. He had one of the most bluest expressions on his face. Bella nodded at him and left the room, knowing it wasn't her place to be there.

When the door snapped shut behind him, he sat down on the chair by her bed, and cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"What is it?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Marina, my oldest friend, you're mother - Amanda, she-she died today." he told her bluntly, his voice matching hers.

Marina blinked, not fully comprehending his words. She tittered for a second, "April Fools! Right…?"

The look on her face was so hopeful that House absolutely hated himself. But he knew that he had to do this. "Your mother said to tell you that she loves you, and that she is so, so sorry for not telling you about me until now." he said, getting up and leaving her to think.

Marina's eyes grew huge as she let the information sink in, staring at her hands. Dead. Her mother. _Dead. _Her mother was dead! And the last thing she had done was call her mother a bitch. Just dandy!

She blinked rapidly as she comprehended it fully, an onslaught of tears falling from her lashes, her eyes turning red and glassy as they continued to fall, and she stared blankly at the wall. _Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead….._ the one word echoed around her head, ping-ponging back and forth, the players hitting it extra hard.

She would never, ever hear her mother's voice, never see her again, never - the list was too long.

Then, she thought about what her mother might say if she were here now. "Everything may suck, but it probably won't last awhile." That's what her mother always said in a tough situation. She wondered where her mother had got the phrase. She had never asked her. One of the many things she had never asked her mother.

But then she became angry. How dare her mother go off and die and leave her? How could she?

But then her anger boiled down to exhaustion, and she lay down and slept; hoping it was all just a horrible nightmare.

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If you cried then tell me!!!!!!!!! Cause I was hoping that this would be a tear-jerker!!!!! Please review! More on Jake in the next chappie. 1 or 2 more chaps to go!

Oh! If you are bored waiting for my updates, and if you haven't already, check out some of my other stories! I have humorous oneshots and a series. Oh! And for the people who have me on author alerts: alerts aren't working right now and I just want to let you know that I posted a oneshot called Spin the Vicodin. It's very humorous.

I HATE TRITTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I made signs that have the word TRITTER in a red circle with a diagonal line through it.

Review please!

Thanks!

ILGH


	14. Just the Coolest Thing

Hi You!

Title: Just the Coolest Thing

Disclaimer: If I owned House, we would not have to wait 3 weeks for the next episode!!!

A/N: I am sooooo sorry for the wait! I just had writers block, and got busy, and the whole shebang. This is short, but I found it kinda humourous. This Chapter is short, but it's better than nothing, right?

About the poll: Everyone's answers were much too widespread, so I came up with this on my own and was actually quite pleased.

Hope you enjoy!

ILGH

Jake hurriedly ran, and ran, and ran. He knew what he would do – he must go to his apartment, grab a few belongings, and go to Hawaii! Yes, Hawaii!!

He raced up the apartment's steps and hurtled himself at his door. He dashed in, and quick as a bullet, shot out again, carrying a small bag.

He was about to leave, when he realized that he needed to check his mail. He walked over to the box and slid it open. He put his hand inside and did not feel paper. He felt something smooth, scaly, and very much alive.

"Ahh!" he yelped, jerking his hand away and stumbling to the floor.

_Chhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…chhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… _

Jake couldn't decide whether it was a rattling sound or a hissing sound. He decided on both. And those were the last thoughts that Jake had as for right then a poisonous rattlesnake sprang out of his mailbox and bit him on the neck.

With poison seeping through his veins, Jake died a slow, painful, short, painless death. Confusing, isn't it?

Miles away, in a hospital known as the PPTH, Marina Zora, a recovering patient, was chatting amiably to her doctors. Sure, her mom had just died, but she needed a distraction.

Her doctors, Dr.'s Chase, Cameron, and Foreman, were very nice people, and knew her father very well.

"Hey, guys, guess what?" she asked them.

"What?" they chorused back at her.

"Well, it was soooo cool, when I went outside yesterday, I found this _huge _rattlesnake…"

The next and last Chappie will come soooooon! Please, please, PLEASE review so I can get a faster update!!!!!

Oh, and if you are one of the people who is currently waiting for the next installment of my trilogy, you won't be seeing the sequel to H,A and DD until after this story is finished, because I don't want to work on two at the same time.

Thanks everyone for sticking with me so far!

ILGH


	15. Close As He's Gonna Get

Hi You!

Disclaimer: I own everything that is not someone else's.

Yay! I'm FINALLY updating! I'm really proud of this chapter, and I really hope you like it too.

**NOTE: IF YOU READ CHAPTER 14 AND IT WAS TITLED 'POLL' PLEASE GO BACK AND REREAD IT, IT WAS REPLACED BY A NEW ONE. **

The last chapter was extremely unrealistic. So is the beginning part of this. Notice the small details that means that something is off. This is all messed up for a reason.

After much laboring, the chapter is finally done. :)

Please read!!!! AND REVIEW!

Onwards!

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He was running towards her, embracing her, bandages on his head, cane in hand. He felt, inexplicitly, happy, which was a feeling that he had not felt in a long while. But, no, everything had logic behind it, and that was the first thought that came to mind.

But – he realized, what was the reason to what has happened to him as a child? What was the reason innocent people were killed by incompetent people?

But this – this had a reason. This had logic sewed in fine threads, draping it, and it became so painfully obvious he felt extremely stupid for not realizing the answer sooner. It was _her._ He wasn't sure exactly which 'her'; he supposed it would have to be both 'hers'.

'Her' number 1. Amanda. Yes, he was extremely unhappy about the news shrouding her death, but in her last days, he felt good. He supposed she must have too.

He recalled with mortification that even the most moronic of his peers – Chase – would have figured out his change in mood. He usually tried to hide these kinds of things; if Cameron had found out about his rare touchy/feely moments - that were becoming increasingly alarmingly often - then she might have a sob fest. Yeah, he knew he was stereotyping her and he knew that she wasn't a _complete _ball of fluff but he didn't care.

'Her' number 2. Marina. He had never really understood why people jumped for joy when they found out that they were having a baby, or pregnant. The world is overpopulated, just get a kid from China, or if you're not fond of those children then adopt somewhere else, sheesh. He had also not understood how grown men might be reduced to tears at seeing a new life being released from its womb. He had definitely known why the mother's had cried, they had just squeezed a baby out of them, but the men? Men didn't cry. At least, that's what he'd been taught growing up. A newborn baby was the ugliest thing he had ever laid eyes upon, yes; he would even say it's uglier than himself. It was all pale, and bloody, and it was so annoying! It just keeps crying and crying and crying! Of course, that's how you know that the kid is breathing, but it's still annoying. He had never understood how people became so attached to their children after about two seconds of being with them, and if after medical complications, the baby would die and they would bawl their eyes out. It's not like you had a chance to be its best friend. You barely knew the kid. There were a lot of things House did not understand. But now, he certainly did not feel as if he had known his own daughter all his life, but he could not deny that he loved her. He could not deny that he felt extremely protective of her, that he wanted her to be safe, okay, that he wanted to make her feel better, that he wanted…that he wanted to be a good father. She made him have a purpose in life, and he knew…he knew that he would not be bored again.

House had managed to grudgingly come to all these conclusions while embracing his daughter. He had been released, she was being released, and they were going _home. _

If you had seen his face, you would have seen a number of expressions flit across his countenance, ending with realization – and acceptance.

-------------------------------------- 

House gasped and jolted awake with a cold sweat beading his face, never before had he had such a vivid dream. "Holy shit…" he murmured to himself. He rubbed the grit out of his eyes and sat up, trying to gauge where he was while squinting against the harsh light of day.

He muttered incoherently to himself, before finally realizing he had slept on the floor of the conference room, as he had done so many times before.

"I didn't know if I should wake you." whispered a crouching Cameron.

He didn't say anything, just glanced at his surroundings. Foreman was sipping coffee, looking at a magazine; Chase was doing a medical crossword ("Nine letter word for the abnormal breakdown of red blood cells." he asked, stumped. "Hymolysis." Foreman answered. "Oh…thanks!" Chase scribbled down the answer, though with a puzzled look on his face as to how he could have forgotten what the answer was.); Wilson was busying himself with a novel (no one knows exactly why he's here, but they all expect it's because of House); and Cameron was crouching over said person and making sure he was alright.

You see, they had been quite worried – well, at least Cameron was and Wilson slightly – to find House sprawled on the floor of the conference room. It was confusing and they made a mental note to interrogate him once he woke up. They heard him mutter unintelligible things in his sleep, and although it was not the normal things one would hear in ones sleep, they sometimes could make out a "No!" a "Stupid bastard" a "Don't leave me" a whimpering "What's going on?" an "I love you" and many other fragmented bits. Only Wilson and Cameron however, had seen tears trickle down through his closed eyelids, and wondered what he could possibly be dreaming about. They had, of course, known he was awakened when he gave a great shuddering gasp and lurched forward, panting and then rubbing his eyes.

"You awake?" called an accented voice, while another one muttered "Finally! Now we can actually work!

Wilson, however, had not said anything, just merely crossed the room, crouched down next to House, and said "Are you alright?"

"Yeah….yeah, I'm fine…" he said, but everyone could hear that hint of uncertainty in his voice. "I think." No one but Wilson caught this last comment, and he threw House a sharp look as he said it.

Just as Wilson was about to drag House to another room to talk with him, Cuddy came in. She took a look at House on the floor with Wilson and Cameron kneeling over him. "Threesome?" she asked, grinning.

"Not if you don't come over and join my sexy circle."

"I think I'll decline."

"That's fine; all I have to do is look at your top and I get a clear view of what I'm missing. _Love _the blouse by the way; I don't even think it took a yard of fabric to make!"

Cuddy folded her arms across her chest. "Enough with the sniping, get into clinic. _Now." _

He struggled to his feet and used Wilson's and Cameron's heads as a support (both letting out an "Oomph!") and managed to stand upright. Cuddy's eyes traveled across his body, noticing that he was wearing the same clothes as yesterday.

He noticed this. "Oh stop it, you're making me blush."

Her eyes snapped back to his face which was grinning impishly. "Oh just get to the clinic!" she ordered exasperatedly.

He gave her a salute, "Yes, sir!"

"Come talk to me later." Wilson said as he started to leave.

House stared at him. How open was he being?

Wilson seemed to realize his mistake, and inwardly groaned when he saw his friends face seal up; eliminating all emotion he had seen. Wilson sighed inwardly, he could tell that something was nagging at House, but he also knew that his friend would not talk.

He made his way out of the conference room, his mind almost being completely engrossed with the patient he was about to see. And with that comforting thought, that at least he still had a stable thing in his life that would only be gone by his choice, he continued on, almost never letting his mind stray to House. Almost.

-------------------------------------- 

House emerged from examining yet another stuffy nose. He groaned and picked up his next file – the dragon-lady hadn't even allowed him to get himself coffee.

Sick of it all, he walked into the middle of the clinic. "FREE BEER!" he shouted. Everything quieted down, and everyone regarded him, why he was walking around hollering about free liquor. They wondered whether he had escaped from the Psych Ward.

"Now that I have your attention." He said, and very audibly and obviously cleared his throat. "Hi! My name is Dr. Gregory House, and what I just shouted is what I'll give you if you leave _right now_, so I don't have to examine another stuffy nose or whiney kid. SO – Who's up for it?"

Several people thought to themselves _Holy crap! That hobo is a doctor! I'm outta here!_ And scrambled from their seats. Several alcoholics (and there were many in the room) thought to themselves _Whoo! Free beer! _And hurried to House where he then passed them each a bottle of beer.

Someone asked from the crowd, "What if you're allergic to liquor?"

"Then you must live a very, very sad life." House replied.

Now there were only about 7 or 8 people in the room. House was just approaching a woman with a baby who had rashes all over her body (he wanted an allergy test) when a teenage girl spoke up.

"Please!" she cried desperately. "My friend is really, really sick!"

He turned around and saw two teenage girls, one holding the other. The one being held was pale and shaky and looked like she was trying not to vomit.

They were the girls from his dream, Bella and Marina. He tried not to let any shocking recognition show on his face, and even though it did, the patients took it to mean that he was surprised at how sick she looked.

House, however, was not the only doctor in the clinic. Cameron watched his face from behind a stack of files, and though she could not see the girl, she knew that he knew her. She fled to the only one that might know anything – Wilson.

-------------------------------------- 

She cornered him after he had finished dealing with a patient.

"Dr. Wilson." She called, as he was leaving.

He turned, his lab coat swirling around his legs. "Oh, hello Cameron. What is it?"

"House…I was just in the clinic and House – he got this strange look on his face when he saw someone, it was almost like shocking recognition, like a look that said, 'Holy crap I cannot believe I am actually seeing this person, I didn't think I'd ever actually see them' or something like that. Has House ever looked like this?"

"Not really," he shook his head. "But the clinic you say?"

"Yes."

"Okay then, I'd better go. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Cameron's anecdote had added to his suspicions that there was something that was really affecting House, and that he needed to find out.

-------------------------------------- 

"Hi! I'm doctor House, and I'll be your attending physician today! But you already knew that." He said, looking at the two girls.

Suddenly, a guy walked in.

"Jake, please leave."

The guy stopped in his tracks. "How'd you know my name?"

"The same way I know you have spy equipment in your apartment, and are currently planning to use them on Marina here because you are in love with her." He said simply.

"Bu – wha – Not true! And how does that explain things?"

"It doesn't. Now please get out, I can't have you harassing my patient."

Jake backed out, looking dumbstruck. How'd that old guy know what he was planning to do? Needless to say, he never came back again.

"I'm going to need to draw some blood." he said to Marina. She nodded.

He drew the blood, and sent it to the lab. He was testing for Yellow Fever, just to be extra sure and also still maybe thinking that it really _was _all just a dream, but it had so far proven right.

He stayed in the room, not saying anything, just tapping his cane against the floor to a beat that only House could hear inside his head.

Finally, he said "Give me your phone." to Marina.

"Why?" she demanded.

"Because. Not allowed, I need to confiscate it."

She rolled her eyes and handed him the cell phone.

He looked at it and flipped it open.

"Hey! What are you doing!?" yelled Marina. "That's mine!"

"I'm perfectly aware that it's yours, unless you stole it."

"I didn't!"

"Okay then, you didn't steal it, ergo it's yours, ergo I never needed you to tell me that it was yours a second time."

He continued to play with the phone, pressing random buttons. "Cool. A camera phone." He aimed it at Marina. "Say cheese," and snapped a picture.

He flipped through her pictures, and found one of…of Amanda. He showed it to her. "This your mom, right?"

"Yeah! So?"

"No reason." he lied.

He flipped through her contacts. "Who's Devin? Your juicy boy-toy? Oh, I _love _gossip."

She glared at him.

"Oh, look! Mommy dearest! Lets call her!"

"No!"

"I think yes." He said, and pressed _send. _

The phone rang, and he put it to his ear.

"Hello?" said a woman's voice.

"Hi!"

"This is not my daughter. Who are you? What have you done to my daughter!?"

"Woah, take a chill pill. Or a Vicodin. They're really, really yummy."

"Tell me what you've done with her!"

"Oh nothing. Just drawn some blood. I'm a doctor you see."

"What did you test her for?"

"What did I test her for?" he repeated, looking over at Marina with an impish smile on his face. "Why, a pregnancy test of course!"

"OH. MY. GOD!" Marina groaned. "I will SUE you!!!"

"WHAT?!" they heard through the phone.

"Woah! I _said _take a chill pill. Just relax, Manda, I was just kidding. I was testing her for a disease."

"I didn't tell you my name. Why did you know my name or my nickname. I never told you!"

"Of course you've told me your name. When you were about seven."

"Oh my god…..Greg?"

"The one and only."

"Greg! I – I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"Oh, well there's no hard feelings! None at all! Faking your death for 15 years! No biggie! Now, not telling your daughter who her real father is…now that's just wrong."

"Wait, you know who my dad is? Tell me!" Marina demanded. "And what are you even talking about? Is my mom crying? Do you know her?"

"You…you know?" Amanda gulped.

"Well duh. It was really kind of obvious who's the father."

"WHO'S MY DAD?!" yelled Marina.

Outside, people were starting to stare, until they realized that the patient was shouting at House, and that he had probably set her off.

"Don't talk to your father that way." he mock-scolded.

She thought that he was just kidding.

"Look, Manda, just come to the hospital, and we can continue our conversation here."

She gulped. "O-okay."

_Click. _

House then turned off the phone, and put it in a bag. He wrote her name and room number on it and then tossed it to the nurse, who in turn tossed him a red lollypop. They had an agreement going on, you see.

"Wait! Where are you going?" cried Marina, as House had just started towards the door.

"Well do you think that your test results are going to make their way to your room by themselves?" he asked rhetorically, putting the sucker back in his mouth and exited the room.

"That doctor was _so _weird……" said Bella fervently.

Marina said nothing. That was not the way doctors acted around patients, surely. So why did that doctor think he could….be himself around her? Why was she so special? Or was it….was it because of her mom? Did he know her? Her mind was reeling with questions, and she knew that she would most likely have to wait a little bit longer for the answers.

-------------------------------------- 

House escaped from the clinic room and dashed towards the elevator. Well, as fast as one could dash with a gammy leg. As soon as he got to the roof he groaned and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes to think.

He was stuck up shit creek without a paddle – no, he didn't even have the boat! He had fucked up big time. He had just been a complete _ass_ to his possible daughter, he still wasn't going to trust his dreams, that part of him was, at least, still the same. But it wasn't unexpected, when he got nervous, he was even more of a jerk than he usually was. On any normal day he would have definitely have not have taken a patients cell, called their mother, and told them that he had just given their daughter a pregnancy test. He was not that mean. But, he figured there was nothing he could do to help the situation. He screwed up all the time, he could just forget about the whole daughter thing and – oh fuck. He had already revealed to Amanda that he knew about her existence and that he knew that he was the father!!!!! _Merde_…he was really screwed now. Wait…._possibly _the father. Yes, well, he'd just have to…er….punch himself in the face repeatedly until he knocked himself out, then he would go into a hospital room as a patient and he could deny ever seeing or talking to the patient, and if they claimed otherwise (Marina and Amanda), well, he could just say they were crazy! That was the only _logical _solution that House could come up with.

House raised his arm and got ready to strike himself, too panicked to realize that what he was doing was actually extremely stupid. But, he continued on, already in the thick of things.

-------------------------------------- 

Wilson hurtled through the clinic in a desperate attempt to find House. He went up to the nurse.

"Dr. House signed out yet?"

"Yeah, five minutes ago."

"Did you see which way he went?"

"Er…left. Why? Is something wrong?"

"Uh…It's nothing."

Wilson then walked at a swiftly walked down the main hallway, then pealed off to the left. He thought of where House went when he wanted to think big things over. Then it hit him…The roof!

-------------------------------------- 

House was too much in a daze to realize how stupid he was being. His fist was brought higher….

-------------------------------------- 

Wilson pounded up the stairs, he didn't know why, but he had a really bad feeling. He quickened his pace, he had a _really _bad feeling…

-------------------------------------- 

House closed his eyes tight and felt the air rushing past his arm as his arm started its swift descent…

The balcony door burst open and he heard the pounding of footsteps, "House!" called Wilson's voice.

House's thoughts were too muddled…he didn't want to think about it; he didn't want to think about _anything…._he didn't register the frantic calling of his name, and just as his clenched fist made the slightest impact upon hair, he slumped to the ground.

He looked up blearily. Wilson had tackled him.

_"What were you doing?!_" hissed Wilson.

House continued to say nothing.

"Tell me. I can help!"

"I was admiring the view." House replied somewhat shakily. _I can't believe I was just about to **punch **myself! There are **such **easier ways to forget…Alcohol, my trusted Vicodin….Yeah. I'm pretty sure I have both in my office. Yeah, I'll go there. _

He repeated what he did in his office and put his hand on Wilson's head, as if petting him. Then, with an all mighty push (and a slight cry from Wilson), House got to his feet.

"Well, I'll be off, then."

He stumped towards the door without a single glance behind him, and the door swung shut with a slight creak.

Wilson stared at the spot where he disappeared sadly, a light breeze ruffling his hair. Sighing, he made his way back.

-------------------------------------- 

House made his way back to the clinic. He didn't want to deal with Cuddy's screeching; his head was pounding enough as it was.

As he neared the hallway he saw the one thing he was dreading: Amanda.

Unfortunately, she spotted him before he could make his escape. "Greg!" she gasped, running up to him.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" he asked, putting on a face of utter confusion.

She teared up. "You really don't know me?"

"Sorry, no recognition whatsoever."

"O-Okay." she turned and started towards the door.

_It's for the best, _he thought. But then he remembered all the good aspects of his dream, and how _happy _(for the first time in a long time) he had felt. He took a tentative step towards her direction. He remembered how lonely and alone he felt sometimes, and took another step. He steeled himself.

"_Wait!"_ he called.

_This isn't exactly a happy ending_, he mused, as she threw her arms around him. _But it's as close as I'm gonna get. _

**THE END **

Yes! I FINALLY finished it! I'm so proud of me!

PLEASE review me! It's your last chance to do so!


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